The Mouse Who Would Be King
by Organization VI
Summary: The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.
1. It Started with a Mouse

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Sorry, but we're taking a break from 'Lost Worlds' for awhile! My inspiration's been hard to come by, and the next world is my duty, too. XP However, there is this fun new experiment instead. Disney-centric fic is near-nonexistent in this fandom, sadly. This is my attempt to rectify that.

A few mild KH2 spoilers.

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A long time ago...or perhaps it wasn't that long ago. Really, things like days and nights are pretty inconsequential in these matters.

Either way, it was a time ago, back when the worlds were still pretty new and getting used to the idea of existing separated from each other in space. Back then when things were new, people really didn't know about each other, because everyone thought their world was the only one out there.

Well, _most_ everyone did.

Now, one of these new worlds out in nowhere was a bit particular. It was quite small, and a little scratchy around the edges, but none the worse for it. In fact, this world had a lot of light in it, although it wasn't always obvious. Its denizens enjoyed long and happy lives in friendly busyness.

Punctuated, of course, by the occasional bout of senseless and wanton chaos. But no place is perfect.

Perhaps it was because these 'bouts' of chaos began to occur more frequently –often as much as twice a week- that its denizens decided to build a castle. After all, if there was a real ruler for the world, they would _do_ something about all this chaos disrupting their pleasant lives.

Or rather, they just wanted _someone_ in some authority to put a certain troublemaker in his place.

At the moment, this certain troublemaker was, as usual, gazing up at the bright gray sky (for there was no blue) and doing something only slightly less approved of. That would be imagining other people on other worlds beyond the stars.

It wasn't that imaging other people was a _bad_ thing. It just so often led to trouble. And why would anyone bother? It wasn't like there was anything special up there, anyway. And there were better ways to spend one's time.

Such as having a job, which this individual had conveniently forgotten to go to. He was a mouse of few words and many thoughts, perhaps a little absent-minded, perhaps even a bit cocky. But at least he knew how to laugh at serious things, and how serious funny things could be.

Maybe it was because his job had become so mundane, but he had taken more and more to thinking about what might lay beyond their small and slightly scratchy world. What sort of people would live on those different worlds? There must be hundreds of different possibilities! And all of them so different! Unfortunately, there was no way for him to travel up there and find out. Why, the fastest way to get around this place was just the little—

"MIIIIIICKEEEEEY!"

Mickey Mouse scrambled to his feet after tripping once over his own shoes. He stumbled through the long grass to the edge of the river, where a very familiar steamboat chugged to a crawl. The steamboat's captain marched on deck with his hands in fists and his face in a scowl.

"Mickey! You were supposed to be on this deck two hours ago, ya lazy sod!"

"Aw, shucks," he grumbled, more upset with getting caught then actually being late.

Pete tapped his boot against the deck with annoyance. "Don't you 'aw-shucks' me! How'm I supposed to run this here boat if you keep gallavantin' off ter who-knows-where?"

It was in Mickey's humble opinion that Pete could run his steamboat just fine without him. After all, whenever he was "helping," Pete was busy lounging on a deck with a comfy folding chair and a lemonade. But considering he was in enough trouble at the moment, he just hopped on board. "Whelp, I'm here now, aren't I?"

Pete leered down at him, his furry face looking like it was squished into a permanent frown. "Maybe so. But it still smells like you're up to no good to me!"

"Only 'cause your nose is too big!" Mickey taunted, then ran off towards the opposite end of the boat. He had a few seconds' head start before Pete caught on to the insult. And that would be in three...two...

"Why you LITTLE—"

And the chase began again, around the teeny excuse for a deck and through the teenier captain's cabin. Mickey almost ran through a pair of gray sparrows poking around the deck, who twittered at the noise and took to the sky—

_That_ was it! That was what he needed!

"Gotcha, ya little runt!"

The chase came to a screeching halt as Pete stomped down on his thin tail. Mickey yelped in surprise, but hardly cared with Captain Pete gave him a smack upside the head for his trouble.

After all, _now_ he had an idea.

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I hope at least a few are interested! Timeless River is my all-time favorite world, and needs more love. Have a little bit of chapter two written so far, but I don't know when I'll update next...


	2. Ready for Liftoff

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** I know my timeline is a bit off in some of these chapters (I'm know Pluto isn't a character in "Plane Crazy," he doesn't come in until a later cartoon, I believe) but Disney chronology is often so convoluted that I decided to take a few liberties.

A few mild KH2 spoilers.

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The small and slightly scratchy world was in quite a bit of excitement. They were finally ready to start building the castle, because they had the most important piece: the Cornerstone of Light.

Nobody was quite sure what it was, or where it'd come from, but it'd been around for quite awhile. Hidden in a dark cave at the farthest bend in the river, which seemed an awful strange place for a great ball of light to hide, but there was no point in debating the whys and hows of such things. All that _really_ mattered was that people felt especially happy when they were around it. Surely something that special would be the perfect thing to support their new castle.

The problem, of course, was getting the cornerstone all the way from the cave down to the building site for the castle. This was accomplished through a series of pulleys, wagons, boats, and one particularly disgruntled cow. The last leg of the cornerstone's journey would be made by nothing other than Pete's steamboat, and the date for that trip was today. Pete was beside himself with glee at how important his little boat was soon to become.

Despite all this, Mickey Mouse was nowhere to be found. He had much more important matters to attend to.

"C'mon, Minnie! Wait till you see it. It's perfect!"

He led his friend Minnie Mouse around to his backyard, convinced that this was much more exciting than any cornerstone for some stuffy old castle. And who better to share this excitement with than his own sweetheart?

But Minnie wasn't quite as enthusiastic. "Mickey, you're supposed to be helping Pete bring the cornerstone up the river! You're going to get into trouble again."

"Aww, that can wait. Get a load of this!"

With that, he swung his back gate open and revealed the object of his excitement: a strange contraption built out of wooden boxes, boat parts, some rope and a bit of old laundry. It sat on a pair of bouncy rubber wheels, and included two seats, a pair of wings stretched across several wooden poles, and a rickety tail. The flying contraption was being "guarded" by Mickey's dog, Pluto, who was now busy sniffing the nearby tree for chipmunks.

"Oh, Mickey!" Minnie exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "It's just grand! I've never seen anything like it!" Indeed, she'd never seen anything like it at all. "...What is it?"

"It's an air-plane!" Mickey proclaimed proudly. "And it flies, just like a bird! We can sit in these two seats just here, and it'll take us way up in the air."

"Really?" She looked up to the warm gray sky, as if contemplating all the vast space it contained.

"Yup! And what we're gonna do is get in it and fly to a new world! One waaay up there, past the clouds. We'll meet new people and see new places."

Minnie approached the air-plane with a tad more caution. No telling what such a new thing could jump up and do. "Are you sure it's safe?"

"Sure I'm sure! I built it, didn't I?" Mickey gave the plane a pat, and a rope somewhere in the back snapped, jostling the plane as if the smallest breeze would blow it over. Minnie winced.

"C'mon, I'll give ya a boost!" he encouraged her with a wave to the empty passenger seat. Minnie hesitated, but finally took the invitation and let him help her onto the springy old seat cushion. She didn't spy any seat belts (not that any of their _cars_ had seat belts, but they seemed appropriate for an air-plane) and her worry deepened.

"Mickey, I really do think you should get back to the boat! Everyone is waiting for the cornerstone!"

"When they see us flying over their heads, they'll forget all about that stuff!" Mickey laughed, and hopped into the driver's seat. He did his pre-flight check of the equipment, which consisted of making sure nothing important had fallen off when he wasn't looking. Satisfied with the perfect safety of his invention, he prepared to start the engine.

"Pluto! Oh, Pluuuuto! C'mere, boy!"

Pluto gave up on his chipmunk hunt to run to his master's call. He cocked an ear up to Mickey, who pointed to the rotor at the front of the plane. "Start the engine, boy!"

This had absolutely nothing to do with catching chipmunks, being fed or getting petted, so naturally he ignored it. He turned to look for something more entertaining to do before Mickey called him again. "But Pluto! Don't you want a nice, big, juicy bone?"

Bone? Now _that_ was an activity the bloodhound could get behind. And that's when he noticed it: tied to the rotor was a rope, and on the end of that rope was his bone! Mouth watering, he leapt forward, caught the bone in his teeth and began to trot away with it. He didn't get far before the rope, still tied to the rotor, yanked him back again.

Determined to get the best of this mean and ugly contraption, he pulled back on the rope. He kept pulling and pulling until the rotor blades started to spin, and eventually sputtered to life. Pluto forgot about the bone and proceeded to bark at the angry-sounding machine.

Minnie gasped as the rubber wheels began to roll them forward. "Oh my! We're moving!"

"Hang on, here we go!" Mickey whooped as the air-plane popped and bounced over his lawn. Pluto ran after it, trying to save his master from this noisy monster. But he was too late, as the air-plane thumped over the grass, clipped the top of a birdhouse and nearby terrified a squirrel into a heart attack before finally clearing the fence. The great gray sky welcomed them...and then rejected them and they headed for ground, and then welcomed them back.

Pluto continued to bark until the air-plane was just a wobbly speck in the sky. Its occupants cheered with victory, completely oblivious to the fact that their little world was due for some new senseless and wanton chaos.

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	3. Plane Crazy

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Aaand a new chapter! Wow, it's kind of challenging trying to describe of how the "physics" of a place like Timeless River would work in prose...

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On this most auspicious of days, the denizens of the small and bright world were gathered on the edge of the river, crowded around the spot where the cornerstone would eventually rest for the entire castle. There were picnic baskets for every family, the band was tuning up on the nearby hillside, and all around there was a sense of joy that only the light of the cornerstone could bring. Every dog, duck, cow, pig, horse and chicken present was certain there was absolutely no way that any possible thing could go at all go wrong in any way.

So perhaps they were better off oblivious to the fact that things were already going wrong. Pete was having a difficult time getting the cornerstone onto the cargo raft of his steamboat, mostly because he was attempting to do it alone. The crane was not used to lifting such a bulky object, and it twitched and jerked about in protest as Pete fumbled with the controls.

"Stupid fergin' contraption useless for dagnabbit coddling in the—" His mutterings stopped short as the crane groaned and sank down again, dropping the cornerstone. Pete pounded his fist into the controls. "Blast it! Where _is_ that mouse?!"

Currently, 'that mouse' was almost a hundred feet up in the air, circling a farmyard and nearby pond. He had gawked and gaped at how tiny everything was for several minutes, but even now was starting to get bored with this venture. While this was a terrific new perspective, it was still their same old gray little world.

"Oh Mickey, how long will it be until we're at a new world?"

Instead, he switched his attention to his fellow passenger, Minnie Mouse. Even though their liftoff was successful, she still had a look of worry. Mickey's thoughts instantly turned to other endeavors. After all, they _were_ completely alone up here, and she needed some comfort in light of how new and frightening traveling could be.

"We've still gotta get past the clouds! Just give it some time." A wide grin spread over his features. "It sure is swell up here, isn't it?"

"Yes, I can see almost the whole town. Maybe even the whole world!" she marveled.

He arched his eyebrows at her with a bit of a teasing click. "And it's aaaaall ours. We can do whatever we want up here!"

Minnie had seen that eyebrow-click before. "Oh Mickey, not now! This place isn't really safe!"

"But why not?" he insisted, and leaned up out of his seat to take her arm. He managed to get a few playful, pecking kisses up her arm before—

"LOOK OUT!"

In his concentration being solely on Minnie, Mickey had failed to actually _steer_ the plane. It was now flying like a drunken duck towards a very tall oak tree with very long branches.

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As the two mice sputtered towards their leafy doom, on the ground below the party had gotten started. The band was in full swing, and soda and lemonade was passed around to everyone. Sure, it looked like Pete would be a little late. But a little late never hurt anyone.

Pete would have begged to differ at the moment. He had finally managed to get the cornerstone onto the steamboat after much pushing, pulling, cursing, finagling, wrestling, praying, and wheezing. Safely secure on its wooden raft in the back, Pete climbed aboard and began to guide his boat down the deep gray river.

However, like the crane, the steamboat was not used to carrying such a big weight. It seemed to bumble and stumble over the waves, coughing up great clouds of smoke instead of its usual steam song. Pete knew that if his deck hand had bothered to show up, he could set him shoveling coal for the engine and then there wouldn't _be_ this problem.

"When I get this cornerstone to the hill, I'll make sure _I_ get all the glory and that darn mouse gets what's coming to him!"

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The mouse _did_ get what was coming to him: a large oak tree branch.

Not so for his sweetheart, as she quickly decided that the prospect of land was better than a trip to new worlds at the moment. She bailed out of the air-plane, falling like a stone before her underpants poofed out into a parachute and floated her safely to earth.

Most everyone's underpants were made like this, because really, you never knew when you might need an instant parachute.

The moment she righted herself, she looked back up to see what had become of her pilot. A desperate "Oh, Mickey!" escaped her throat at the events that transpired.

Mickey's air-plane slammed into one of the oak branches, which then stretched and snapped him back out like a rubber band. It sent the plane flipping through the air before it skidded across the barn roof, clipping off shingles to land in a neat pile on Mickey's lap.

Before he could even register this, it dived down and flew through the barn itself, scattering terrified chickens and accumulating a splatter of eggs across the front. It careened through the yard, causing a pig to squish itself thin against a fence, a cow to shoot milk out of its nose, and a goat to join him as a new passenger. The air-plane took another long detour through the pond, around a pair of telephone poles and over Minnie's head before heading for its final destination: the picnic at the river.

Mickey _would_ have yelled "look out!" to all the people on the riverbank, if he hadn't had a fish in his mouth and a goat clinging to him for dear life.

As such, Clarabelle Cow had no warning when a giant flying monster made of boxes and laundry nicked a piece of cake right off her plate, and the dress off her waist. Horace Horsecollar never saw the thing that sent him spinning like a top until he was buried up to his chest in a self-made hole. And Clara Cluck certainly wasn't prepared when the air-plane's tail neatly snatched all the feathers off of hers.

Mickey fumbled for the controls (which the goat was now sitting on) but despite his efforts, the machine still bucked and whizzed around the picnic like a rampaging bull, destroying everything in its path. The picnic sandwiches got speared on its rotors, the band scattered in every which-way, and the nearby trees lost leaves and dignity alike. It was, true to Mickey's unintentional nature, the most chaotic chaos the world had seen yet.

And it was at this moment that Pete's steamboat came chugging merrily down the river.

Despite the still-fresh mayhem on the hill, everyone present on that small and slightly scratchy world still managed to witness what happened next. This included Minnie Mouse and Pluto, who had finally caught up with the air-plane. Pete, being on the steamboat, just happened to have the best view.

The air-plane spiraled towards the steamboat, looking like it was going to crash, but instead it blazed through the narrow space between the boat and the cornerstone. However, in doing so, it snagged the rope tying the cornerstone's raft to the boat. And when it sped towards the opposite bank, it took both things with it.

Pete let out a "WAAAHUUGHGHGHH!" in shock as the side of the boat slammed into the empty bank. The rope pulled on the air-plane only so far before it went taunt, and snapped it back.

As a result, many things went flying at once: the air-plane, squashed and stretched to such great lengths that it would fly no longer; Mickey Mouse, who had flown free of the seat without a safety belt; and the cornerstone, also because it lacked a safety belt.

All manner of thoughts went through Mickey's head as the tumbled head over tail towards a certain rough landing. He felt a bit of shame that this whole debacle had gone wrong. A great sense of dread for what Minnie would say once he got out of the hospital. A mental groan of despair at the extreme likelihood of being fired from his job.

But, more than anything, he wished he could stop mid-fall and keep flying to whatever new world he had failed to reach.

What happened next would be a subject of debate for many generations to come. The simple would say that it was forces beyond their mortal comprehension. The wise would say it was magic. The intelligent would say it was several complex forces of light, energy and momentum working simultaneously.

Whatever it was, it so happened that as Mickey fell to earth, the cornerstone fell as if to land beneath him. Moments from the ground, as Mickey wished very, very hard to be anywhere but here, his fingers touched the stone's surface.

And the second Mickey met the cornerstone, he very suddenly and very completely disappeared from his world.

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	4. Magical Mystery

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** I hope this one isn't too boring, as it's a bunch of new description! But I felt it was kind of important. :O

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As most people eventually knew, the worlds scattered throughout Interspace were not all the same. Some were big and bright, shining in the realm of light like beacons to the interstellar traveler. Some were small and a little scratchy, like Mickey's world, but still at home in the realm of light. And some worlds were perched on the edge between light and dark, steeped in the shadows of twilight. This never made them bad worlds of any sort, as they used the same light as everyone else. It just made them a bit more dangerous.

It was on one of these worlds in the late shadows that Mickey Mouse found himself. He remembered very little about his trip to this place, except it felt like he was falling for a very long time, through flashes of light and darkness and great rushing winds. He would have assumed that he landed on the opposite bank of the river, and the light of the cornerstone has just played with his vision for a bit.

However, when he opened his eyes, he found himself staring at green grass. It wasn't so much the grass that was unusual, as was the fact that it _was_ green. Mickey knew what the color green was, but it was more of an idea assigned to a shade of gray than something you could see and feel. But this grass was, indeed, very green, and sparkled with other wondrous colors like pink and purple and teal and dark green and lime. It was scarcely enough for Mickey's rattled brain to take it in.

He got to his feet very slowly, his knees wobbling. Lucky that such a long and complicated fall hadn't ended in broken bones! He almost fell back down again at his new discovery: his shoes were bright yellow! His shorts were red! Whatever power made the grass green had colored him as well.

Mickey looked up, his eyes wide with unparalleled wonder. Wherever this place was, it was full of the most bright and brilliant colors he had never seen. The sky was a splash of dark blue, purple and pink, dotted with white stars. The grassy patch he had landed on was part of what looked like an island floating in the sky. There was little else on this island except for a tall, twisty tower spiraling just ahead of him. The tower seemed full of a thousand mysteries and puzzles.

"Golly! This _is_ a new world!" he finally exclaimed. He made a little victory hop and danced on the spot, his yellow shoes squishing tiny stars out of the grass with every step. He'd been right all along. There _were_ other worlds out there, and they were incredible beyond his most outrageous dreams!

His heart raced with all sorts of possibilities. He had to explore, and see what fantastic treasures he could find. Perhaps there were diamonds or rubies with real red he could show to Minnie—

That's when he realized it: Minnie Mouse had not made it with him to this color island. No one had, and his air-plane was missing, too. He was completely alone, and with no way to get home.

The colors suddenly seemed to tighten around him. Was this what he really wanted? To leave his friends and his home forever to seek out (literally) greener pastures? Mickey was suddenly not so certain. Sure, his world was small and scratchy and awful gray, but it was still his home. What would all his friends do once they discovered him gone? And where would he find friends in this new place?

Mickey may have been worried, but he still had to take some action. So he tread carefully up to the tower entrance. It had a big, heavy door; the kind that always looked locked whether or not it actually was. So Mickey stood back on the steps and shouted "HALLOOOOOOOOOOOO!" up to the topmost tower.

There was no answer; even his echo seemed to fly away. Frowning, he marched back up to the door and knocked. His three little raps sounded like a DOOM DOOM DOOM against its solid surface. But still, no answer.

Mickey's shoulders sagged. Suppose he was alone on this little island? What would he do then?

"Who are you?"

Not so alone! Mickey spun around to face the person that had spoken to him. As if the sparkling colors of this world weren't different enough, now its first denizen took the cake. It wasn't a dog or cow or horse or goose or cat or rabbit like Mickey had grown up with...it was a man!

The man seemed tall and imposing and mysterious, like the tower and the rest of the world. He wore a long, blue robe with a matching pointed hat, and had a long, gray beard. He gazed down at the mouse with a piercing gaze the likes of which Mickey had never felt before. The look captured him so completely he didn't even realize there was a question until it was repeated. "Who are you?"

Gathering up all the remaining little bits of courage left to him, he answered, "I'm Mickey Mouse! Who're you?"

The man's eyes never left him. "I am Yen Sid, the master of this tower. And you, Mickey Mouse, are an uninvited guest."

Well, of _course_ he was uninvited! Mickey's brows furrowed at this strange creature. "I landed here by accident. I'm from a different world."

"Indeed you are, Mickey Mouse," Yen Sid said in his long, thoughtful voice. "Perhaps you can explain why you are here?"

"Gosh, not really! I just made an air-plane so that I could fly to a new world, but some things went wrong and it crashed, and presto, I was suddenly here." Mickey waved his arms about to articulate each point.

Yen Sid said nothing, leaving Mickey to wallow in the silence. Not liking it, he asked, "Do _you_ have an air-plane?"

"I have none. There is only a special train that goes between here and a large town, far away from these skies. However, the train will not run unless there is someone with a great need to use it. And it will not take you back to your world."

Mickey's hopes dashed all over again. "There's nothing here that flies?" He gave his arms a little flap to demonstrate.

"Only the birds," Yen Sid said with a gesture to the heavens. "I have no flying machines, but what I do have is magic."

This did not really impress Mickey. "So you can pull a rabbit out of that big hat? How does that help me?"

Yen Sid's voice became a touch more dangerous. "Magic is far more than just tricks, young mouse. You can hurt or heal others with it. You can change your surroundings with it. It could even take you new places."

This was definitely not the kind of magic Mickey had seen in his younger years, which mostly consisted of things like rabbits and cards and sawing young ladies in half. This kind of magic sounded much more promising. "So! You can magic me back to my world, then?"

The tall man let out something like a chuckle. "I'm afraid it's not so simple. There are great spans of space between the worlds, full of darkness. Even my magic cannot get you across those distances."

Shot down again! Mickey was awful tired of his hope jumping up and down. "Then how am I supposed to get home?"

"All is not lost. You may not have the means now, but means have a way of presenting themselves when you least expect it. I cannot send you home with magic, but I _can_ teach you magic. It may come in useful to you."

Mickey's sunken hope popped right back up like a cork. "You can? Gosh, that'd be just swell!" he whooped.

The old man's face became stern again. "Now, before you accept, you must remember: it will not be easy. It may even be dangerous. Magic has little patience for weak minds and weak hearts, and it can turn on its user if unchecked."

"Yeah huh," Mickey said with only the faintest bit of care. How hard could magic possibly be? If this old guy could do it, then surely it would be a cinch for him. "Just teach me everything you've got!"

"Very well." Yen Sid walked up the steps and opened the huge door with a wave of his hand. "I will arrange sleeping quarters for you, and we shall begin instruction tomorrow."

"Hot dog!" Mickey exclaimed, hopping with anticipation to explore the tower.

A hint of a smile crept up Yen Sid's face. "All I ask in return is that you do a few chores for me."

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	5. The Sorcerer's Apprentice

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** This was kind of a tricky chapter, but I hope it came out okay! I need to watch Fantasia again... XD

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Three weeks later, on that colorful little world in the twilight, Mickey Mouse resolutely made up his mind that new worlds were not worth the trouble. After all, he'd flown away from his old world to escape his boring and pointless job. And what did he get instead? An even more boring and more pointless job!

Yen Sid did indeed set up a cozy room for him in part of the tower. But the "magic instruction" seemed to keep getting delayed. Instead, the old sorcerer started off each day with a list of tasks he needed completed. These tasks took up so much of his time and energy that he scarcely had the strength to crawl into bed at the end of the day. Wash the windows! Scrub the floors! Trim the hedges! Stack the dishes! Polish the tools! Mend the clothes! Fix the roof! Chop the firewood! Why, even Pete wasn't such a demanding taskmaster.

Worst of all, whenever Mickey asked the sorcerer about learning magic, he was always told, "No, you are not yet ready. Scrub the floors again, there are still stains." Or, "No, it is not the right time. You still have these chairs to fix." If he wasn't ready for magic now, then when?

Mickey would have shirked his chores and run off, but unlike his home world, there was nowhere to run to. There was only the tower and the grassy island it rested upon, and he had already explored these in full. The train never came, and when Yen Sid disappeared from the tower for long spurts of time, Mickey was left behind.

Today was the worst day of all. Yen Sid had given him one of the most menial chores imaginable: "The pool on the bottom floor must be filled. Take water in two buckets from the fountain on the top floor to the bottom to fill it." And after lugging those buckets up and down stairs for half a day, Mickey's feet dragged like slugs and his arms felt like rubber hoses. He was exhausted and cranky. How was this supposed to help him with magic? In his humble opinion, Yen Sid was just using him as a convenient servant.

Speaking of, as Mickey trudged down the tower with another load of water, he spied the great sorcerer in one of his rooms, hunched over a crystal ball on a worn table. Books and parchments scribbled with spells lay open before him. The mouse watched in wonder as Yen Sid worked all manner of magics: he made fire and lightning appear out of thin air, made sparkling lights that turned into birds and butterflies, and then made them all disappear in a flash. Mickey may have resented all these chores, but he still marveled at all the incredible things the sorcerer could do.

So much so, that he dropped his buckets and stumbled into the room, almost tripping on his oversized apprentice robes. "Yen Sid! Can I learn that kind of magic now? I want to try it!"

Yen Sid let out a great sigh. "No, not yet. You are not ready. And the pool in the hall still needs to be filled."

Mickey's patience had about reached its brim, and he stomped his foot in frustration. "I'm tired of doing these dumb chores all day! I'm not getting anything from them. When will I be ready for magic?"

He master stood, imposing as ever. "You lack discipline. You are flighty and unfocused. You heart may be strong, but your mind is still weak."

"Only 'cause these chores are so pointless," Mickey grumbled.

"Finish filling the pool. I must leave the tower for awhile," Yen Sid said simply. He took the pointed hat off his head, and set it on the table next to the book and crystal ball. In a flash of twinkling stars, he was gone.

Mickey stomped again, and picked up the water buckets with a HUMPH. The nerve of that old man, leaving him here to do chores! Grumbling and growling and muttering the entire way, he tromped back up the stairs, scooped up more water and tromped down to empty it in the pool.

As he started back up the stairs again, he passed by the same room, and the pointed hat caught his eye. He knew that Yen Sid always wore it when using his best magics. But even now, the hat seemed to give off a bit of an unearthly glow.

The hat! That was it! It must be how the sorcerer used his powers. So if _he_ could wear that hat, he could use magic, too. Mickey abandoned the buckets, ran to the table and placed the hat on his head. Immediately, he felt a strange warmth wash over him, followed by a thousand little tingly tickles all over. Just wearing this hat made him feel like anything was possible...it _had_ to be what supported the magic. He almost laughed at how easy it was!

With his new magic hat ready, Mickey turned to the great book on the table. He just couldn't decide what to do first: fire or thunder or ice or green trees could all appear from nowhere, or he could control time, or make himself fly!

But then he remembered: if Yen Sid returned and found the pool half-full, he'd know that Mickey had been slacking, and would give him even more chores. What he needed was some magic that could do his chores for him.

The problem was, there was no one around he could magic into carrying the water for him. The room itself was bare except for the objects on the table, a chair, and a lone broom in the corner.

He noticed the broom in detail on his third look around. Perhaps, if he used the magic just right, he could bring the broom to life!

So Mickey concentrated hard on the broom, waving his fingers at it. He didn't know exactly _how_ Yen Sid did magic, but it seemed to involve thinking very hard, so he tried that. He wished, willed, strained, imagined for the broom to move.

And with a little jittering of lights, the broom moved!

Mickey's face exploded into a smile. He could do it! So he concentrated more, asking the broom to jump up and walk. And it walked towards him on its bristles! He wished it had arms so that it could carry the buckets, and two arms popped onto its sides. He willed it to pick up the buckets, and it obeyed.

Mickey danced a little jig as he ordered the broom to follow him down the hall. Now that he'd gotten the hang of it, this magic business was easy! He couldn't imagine why Yen Sid would think he wasn't ready for it. He practically skipped up the stairs to the fountain, and showed with a wave of his hand how the broom should scoop up the water. It did so, and followed him back down to the pool on his command.

The mouse apprentice felt a great thrill surge through him with every new command the broom obeyed. He was using magic with nothing more than his will, and it made him feel like little stars were dancing in his stomach. This was better than easy: it was absolutely fantastic. He couldn't wait to show his friends this new trick when he got home.

But for now, he found himself very tired. After so many hard chores for so many days, all he really wanted was a long nap. And with the broom so eagerly doing his work for him, it seemed perfectly safe to have a little rest in his master's big, comfy chair. He plopped down onto the cushions, and feel asleep almost instantly to the _brish-brish-brish_ of the broom's footsteps.

Mickey had all manner of strange dreams during his nap. He dreamed of seeing Minnie and Pluto and all his friends from home, and showing them how he could make fire and lightning and trees appear from nowhere. He dreamed that Pete tried to stop him, but then Pete turned into a big black monster with glowing yellow eyes. Mickey threw fire and bolts of ice at the monster, but nothing seemed to stop it. It stomped all over his little world as he ran from it sloooowly.

Then, as usually happens in dreams, Mickey was suddenly someplace else, and the monster was gone. He was on a wide tropical beach, with swaying palm trees and a wide blue ocean. He jumped, and found himself perched on a rock above the waves. From here, the sand and nighttime sky full of stars spread around him like eternity.

And he could command them all! He pointed at the stars, and they twinkled on the spot. When he waved his hand, the stars whizzed around him like fireflies. He summoned the waters below him, and they crashed up against the rocks as if trying to reach him. The fear from being chased by the monster before quickly subsided to the excitement of commanding the elements. He somehow knew this was a dream, but it still felt so real! He could almost feel the heat of the stars swirling by his face, and the water soaking into his shoes...

The blurry wish-wash of dreams suddenly gave way to stark reality, and he realized his shoes _were_ really wet. Sitting up with a start, he rocked back into his chair and tipped himself over into the pool with a splash.

The pool? No, this wasn't right! The entire _floor_ was flooded with water! Mickey stumbled up, and saw the cause of the flooding: the living broom hadn't stopped filling the pool once it was full, and was now pouring water to the point of filling the whole room with it.

Mickey Mouse fought his way through the churning water and stood in the broom's path. If he could will it to do his chores for him, he could certainly will it to stop, right? So he held up his hands and wished for nothing more than the broom to stop moving.

But the broom didn't stop. It just trampled over him in his quest to reach the fountain. Mickey stumbled after it, barely even realizing that the tingling feeling of stars in his stomach was gone. Why wasn't the magic working now?

He tried yelling at it, commanding it, waving his arms, anything. But the broom ignored everything but scooping water from the fountain and hurrying downstairs to empty it. Mickey began to feel a real panic. If he didn't stop this thing soon, the entire tower would be flooded before Yen Sid got back!

Then he spied it: in a corner, by the fireplace, was an axe used for chopping firewood. Well, if he couldn't stop the broom with magic, he could always use brute force. So he grabbed up the axe and ran in pursuit of his creation.

The broom couldn't get far on its straw legs. Feeling only the littlest bit sorry, he cornered the broom and swung the axe at it. It fought back, jumping around as if to get away, but he kept chopping until there remained nothing left but a jumble of splinters and sticks.

Gasping for breath, Mickey dropped the axe and trudged out of the room. He pushed the door shut behind him, not wanting to see the ruined broom. What a mess! He'd just wanted to use some magic, and now the bottom floor was flooded and the broom was in pieces! How would he explain _this_ to Yen Sid?

_Brish-brish-brish..._

Mickey forced himself to calm his breaths. This wasn't the end of the world. He just had to look through Yen Sid's magic book and find a spell that could get rid of the extra water. No bringing inanimate objects to life. It couldn't be _that_ hard.

_Brish-brish-brish..._

But wait...what was that sound?

Feeling something like a rock squash down in his throat, Mickey slowly turned and peeked into the room with the broom splinters. Except the broom was no longer in splinters. It was no longer even just one broom! There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of brooms, all alive and all with full water buckets.

Mickey stared in terror for only a second before slamming the door shut. Whatever magic he had used on the broom must have been more powerful than he thought! He pressed himself against the door in a hopeless effort to keep them contained, but it was no use. The brooms stampeded out the room and over him, leaving him with nothing but bits of straw up his ears and nose.

By the time Mickey was able to stand again, the broom army was already done emptying their buckets into the bottom floor and marching back up to refill. More than desperate now, Mickey flung himself at any available broom, yelling for them to stop moving. But they just marched faster and faster, dumping gallons of water until the bottom floor began to spill over into the second floor. The water churned up and down into angry waves from the constant rush of brooms sloshing through it. And Mickey suddenly found himself swimming through those torrents as one of the brooms shook him off.

Mickey sputtered for air as the waves tossed him from one room to the next. Up and down and forwards and backwards become lost in the watery maze, always rising faster. But just when it seemed he'd never find a foothold, he spotted it: Yen Sid's magic book! He paddled with furious strokes until reaching the book, which happened to be big enough for him to sit upon.

There just had to be a spell in there to stop the brooms and the water! He started scanning the spells as best he could, although many of the words were too hard for him to understand. Spells to cure blindness, spells to increase gravity, spells to slow down or speed up time, spells to call down holy magic...why was there nothing on how to stop this water?!

His concentration broke as a fresh wave of water hit him from above. The brooms were still pouring, even as the water gushed up to the third floor. And suddenly, a new current appeared: water flowed out of the hall and began to spiral down the long staircase, dragging the book and Mickey with it. He found himself caught in the centrifugal force of a whirlpool, spinning down and down and down into a black tunnel of water.

Unable to do anything else, Mickey clung to the book for dear life. A horrible, dark feeling spread through every nook in his body, a feeling that had nothing to do with the whirlpool. The feeling of immense regret, of knowing he had done something terribly wrong, and that now he would pay for it. He was going to drown, and he'd never see his friends or his home again.

Mere seconds away from being sucked down into the cold darkness, something suddenly stopped the water. It gurgled back up, equalizing, and then dropping very quickly. Mouth agape, he rode the book all the way down the current, until he unexpectedly found himself on the bottom floor. The remaining water fizzled away into nothing. And as he landed, he noticed the original broom lying on the stones, just the same as before he magicked it.

He glanced up, and saw Yen Sid glaring down at him.

Immediately, a new feeling struck Mickey: he was sorry. Not sorry for getting caught or having to work, as it usually was, but sorry he had disobeyed at all. He had done something unwise, had almost been killed for it, and now Yen Sid had saved him. He deserved far worse than an angry glare.

The old sorcerer said nothing. What was there to be said? So Mickey slowly got to his feet, trying to find the right words. He realized that the magic hat was still sitting on his ears, and he quickly offered it back. Yen Sid snatched up the hat, his eyes still fixed on Mickey.

What to do now? Well, the broom probably belonged to Yen Sid too, so he offered that back. All that remained now were the buckets; a reminder of what had caused this trouble in the first place. He took up each bucket, showing them as if he understood: he'd been given a chore, and had to finish it now.

As he tiptoed off, he gave the sorcerer a bit of a nervous smile. He thought he almost saw him smirk back. Maybe, just maybe, Yen Sid wouldn't do something like turn him into a bug, and just let him get back to his chore...

FWAP! Mickey received a swat from the broom, and he scurried off down the hall.

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Mickey hardly slept that night. He was so caught up in the mixed emotions of using magic and nearly being done in by it that sleep couldn't come. Yen Sid _had_ been right: his mind was not yet strong enough for magic. If Yen Sid hadn't shown up at that moment, he wouldn't even be there in his bed.

Sp the next morning he got up bright and early, feeling very awake despite so little sleep. He immediately set to work scrubbing the floors, washing the windows, trimming the hedges, fixing the roof and filling the bottom floor pool. He did all these things without slouching or complaining, as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

Once he was done, he shuffled up to Yen Sid's desk, where the old sorcerer was looking over his spell book. The broom was back in the corner, looking innocent. Mickey twisted his toes around for a bit before clearing his throat. Yen Sid looked up at the noise.

"Uh, Master Yen Sid..." Mickey felt the words almost stumble out. "Do you have any more chores for me?"

The sorcerer said nothing. Mickey's stomach dropped.

"Please?"

Then, ever-so-slowly, a smile spread across Yen Sid's face. It wasn't a glare, or even a smirk, but just a smile that seemed to say he knew just how his apprentice felt.

"No, Mickey Mouse. I believe you are now ready to learn some magic."

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	6. Castle's Benefit

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Don't know if there's any cartoon references I missed, but at least this is where I wanted the plot to go. :P

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While Mickey Mouse was having many troubles with living brooms and whirlpools, back on his small and slightly scratch world, his friends were having troubles of their own.

No one quite knew how to react to Mickey's sudden disappearance. Some thought maybe the cornerstone had sucked him inside, and prodded and pounded on it in an attempt to open it. But the stone was so solid that even Pete hammering at it with a sledgehammer couldn't crack it. So the ruling hypothesis was that Mickey had disappeared off to somewhere, and would reappear again in a few hours, where they'd make him apologize profusely for upsetting the banquet.

But hours, days and then weeks passed, and still he did not return. The entire world settled into a quiet unease. After all, the concept of someone going away and never coming back was completely unheard of. If you were on this world, then you always _had_ been on this world, and always would _be_ on this world. People just didn't do things like leave forever, no matter how old they got.

So, for the most part, everyone went on acting as if Mickey had only been gone for a couple of hours. They left his house standing, still delivered his mail and milk, and still talked about him as if he'd just gone for a walk by the river that afternoon. Only Minnie Mouse felt the real, physical effects of his leaving. She went over to his house every day to feed and take care of Pluto, who had taken to howling at night for his missing master. She would also clean out his house when the cobwebs got too thick. Minnie would have kept Pluto at her house, but her kitten, Figaro, did not get along well with the bloodhound.

Each passing day made the loneliness seem tougher for Minnie. Where could Mickey have gone? He couldn't _really_ have made it to a new world. After all, his air-plane was sunk at the bottom of the river. But at the same time, he was nowhere to be found in this world, either. She staunchly refused to believe that Mickey had just been zapped out of existence entirely.

As if dealing with Mickey's disappearance hadn't been bad enough, ever since the day of the picnic, it seemed chaos was now a constant thing for their little world. First, there had been a great to-do about getting the cornerstone back in its rightful place. After all, if it made one person disappear, who knew what it could do to anyone else? So no person with half a brain was going to touch _that_ thing. They instead pushed, pulled and prodded the cornerstone back into place with ropes and long poles.

No sooner did they have the cornerstone back in the right place for the castle, when someone stole it! The thievery ended up being a great and confusing debacle, and by the time the cornerstone was back in its place again, everyone seemed to have a different version of events. Some said that Pete had a long-lost twin who had stolen the cornerstone. Some said that the cornerstone scrunched up time wrong for the whole world, so that little doors and windows began popping up to different parts of the world. Some said that Goofy and Donald Duck were involved, although the two swore up and down that they'd been playing a round of miniature golf the entire time. However, all the stories seemed to include a kid with big, spiky hair, challenging the cornerstone's thief with a giant key. But no one knew who he was or where he came from, and he seemed to have disappeared the moment the cornerstone was restored. So everyone decided that what they _thought_ was a spiky-haired kid was obviously...something else. They didn't know _what_ else, but it must've been something.

It took awhile for the excitement of the thievery to die down, but once it did, they immediately set to work building the castle. After all, the sooner they got this castle built, the less change there was of anything more catastrophic happening. Disappearing mice? Boys with giant keys? Stolen cornerstones? Next thing you knew, a tornado could rip through the entire town!

However, building the castle was not exactly sunshine and daises, either. Big quarries sprouted up along the river to provide marble, and even then they couldn't produce the marble fast enough. So the construction went slowly, with long spurts of time with nothing but rebar standing on the building site. That, and while most people of that world worked cheerfully, they also did so rather slowly.

The castle's construction was delayed for another reason. While they did have the cornerstone, they were still missing one of the most important parts of their castle: a king! After all, you couldn't have a proper castle without a king and queen (and possibly a prince and princess) to rule it.

But their small little world had never had a king or queen before, and they did not know how to get one. There was always the possibility of waiting for a long lost heir to ride up on a white horse and claim the throne, but that wasn't terribly practical.

So, they did what any sensible town would do: they held tryouts.

The tryouts for king (and optional queen) were held in the town hall, judged by Very Important Officials. Those Very Important Officials would have elected themselves king, but then they wouldn't be Very Important Officials anymore, and _some_one on that world needed to be a Very Important Official.

Everyone else, however, was fair game. And nearly the entire town showed up for the tryouts. They all stood in line, shuffling around and being very rowdy. All of them, except for two: Minnie Mouse sat in the audience, deciding she'd rather watch than participate. Somehow, it just didn't feel right asking to be queen without Mickey there.

The other was Pete. Instead of standing in line like everyone else, he was sneaking around behind the scenes with a bundle of tools under his arm. He was determined to be named king of the castle. After all, he had spent long enough just piloting that old steamboat day in and day out. He deserved so much more! So what if he had to cheat a little for it?

As soon as everyone was settled, the first of the contestants stepped up to interview: Pluto, Mickey's dog. Clearing his throat and standing as regally as possible, Pluto barked, "Woof! Woof, woof-woof! Woof woof!"

"Silence!" exclaimed the first Very Important Official. "From now on, all candidates must be able to talk. Next!"

Pluto gave an indignant HMPH! Before walking off stage. As he went to sit by Minnie, his archrivals, the two chipmunks walked onstage.

"I'm gonna be king I'll be a great king and Dale here said he'll be queen so do we have the job huh?" Chip started.

"Hey hey hey you said I could be king and you'll be queen meanie!" Dale interrupted.

Chip turned on his partner. "You'll make a lousy king nuts-for-brains besides I'm smarter and cuter and it was your idea!"

"Nuh uh you're the dumb one you said I could be queen I mean king not queen you said—"

"Silence!" yelled the second Very Important Official. "From now on, no candidates can be animals. Next!"

Well, everyone present _were_ animals, but they knew what he meant. Chip and Dale pelted the Very Important Official with acorns before scampering offstage.

The next one up was Clara Cluck, who cleared her throat and threw her head back to belt her audition: "Iiiiiif I we-e-e-e-e-e-re QUEEEEEE—"

"Silence!" cried the third Very Important Official. "From now on, no candidates may sing. Next!"

"Well, I never!" Clara Cluck proclaimed, turning up her nose and jaunting off the stage.

Candidate after candidate was given the "NEXT!" treatment from the Very Important Officials. All of them seemed to have something un-kingly about them, whether or not it was actually their fault. "Candidates must not be covered in flour! Candidates must have their pants on! Candidates must not be bitten by fire ants!"

This way, most of the people trying out were eliminated. There were now only three left: Donald Duck, Goofy, and Pete. The Very Important Officials watched as Donald waddled on stage, straightened his collar and tipped his sailor hat back. Indeed, he did look quite confident in himself. "I should be king! I'd rule over the whole world and build an amusement park! It'll be called—"

Donald's speech was cut short as a very convenient bucket of water left in the rafters tipped over his head. As soon as the cold splash hit him, he burst into a tirade of fury: "Heeey, what the big idea?! Why I oughta—"

"Silence!" yelled the first Very Important Official. "From now on, no candidates may be wet. Next!"

"That's not fair! I just got dumped with water and your dagfrabbin' made-up rules—"

"NEXT!" the Very Important Official repeated. Still grumbling, Donald stomped offstage. Pete hid his snickers almost as well as he hid the rope tied to the bucket behind his back.

Goofy shuffled up onto the stage next, looking a tad nervous, but still willing. He removed his hat and grinned at the Very Important Officials. "Hiya! Th' name's Goofy. I think I'd be a good king, because I can do all kindsa things, like WAAAAAA-HOOHOOOEEEEE!"

Goofy's speech was cut short when he suddenly fell into a hole in the stage. Pete almost couldn't hide his sniggering or his saw as the second Very Important Official exclaimed, "Silence! From now on, candidates must not fall into holes! Next!"

The only candidate left was Pete. Dumping his remaining tools to the side, he strolled up on stage and gave the Very Important Officials his best non-scowly grin. "I'm Pete, captain of the best steamboat on the river! I knows how to run a boat well, see? So I'm the best guy t' run a castle, too! I'll make sure no one shirks about, and that nuttin' weird ever happens to this world!"

The entire auditorium waited, but nothing bad happened to Pete: no water buckets, no holes in the floor, no missing pants, no bags of flour, and no fire ants. Of course, this didn't strike anyone as odd. After a pause, the Very Important Officials all stood.

"Brilliant!" cried the first.

"Inspired!" shouted the second.

"Superb!" yelled the third.

And with that, they immediately elected Pete as king of the castle. The big cat practically did a jig off the stage as everyone applauded. Everyone but Minnie Mouse, that is.

So it was that Pete became the first king of the castle. But despite this, or perhaps because of this, things were about to get much, much worse for the small and slightly scratchy world.


	7. In the Ways of Magic

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Okay, I actually really love trying to figure out how "game logic" stuff would work in fiction, just as a warning. XD

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While the whole hullabaloo with the stolen cornerstone was underway, on the colorful little world steeped in long shadows, Mickey Mouse was facing off against a familiar foe. Yen Sid set up a broad, circular room towards the bottom of the tower, with plenty of room for his apprentice to practice. The room was bare except for a table, a chair and the same broom. Mickey stood at the ready, a simple magic rod clenched in both hands.

"What good does the rod do?" Mickey asked.

"The rod is merely a tool. A sword, a shield, my hat, or any other object can be used in its place. The weapon is used to concentrate and focus your magic. Without it, your magic can run unchecked and grow beyond your control."

So that's what must have happened with the broom. Mickey smiled, feeling a little sheepish.

Yen Sid continued, "It is clear that you have talent, but you must begin with small spells and build up your skill. We'll begin with a simple fire spell."

"Right!" Mickey said. He found himself more nervous with these easy spells than when he first tried magic, perhaps because his first attempt had ended in such disaster.

The nervousness skyrocketed when Yen Sid pointed at the broom, and it jumped up to life. "Not again!" Mickey cried as it began to jaunt around the room, swinging its two arms.

"Now, hit the broom with the spell I told you," Yen Sid instructed. "Don't worry, I have enchanted the broom so that magic won't harm it. You just must try to stop it."

Mickey pointed the rod at the waltzing broom, trying his best to concentrate on the spell. Fire...he just needed to create a short burst of fire, aim it at the broom and make fire...he could feel the rod getting hot in his hands...

"YEOW!" He jumped back as a jet of flame erupted from his weapon. It missed the room by a mile, scorching across one of the walls.

"Try again!" Yen Sid commanded. His apprentice concentrated again, faster this time, and shot two fire spells in a row. The broom began to run in a wide circle, trying to avoid being hit. Seeing how easy the spell could be conjured, Mickey chased after it, casting fire bolt after fire bolt at it. He finally managed to hit it twice, causing the broom to stop and twitch. He started another spell to finish it off, only to discover that the heat did not reappear from the rod. No bursts of fire followed.

"Hey! The magic's not working anymore!" Mickey complained.

Yen Sid sighed as if expecting this. "Yes have used up all of your magical energy. Magic draws its power from a special energy inside you. Once that energy runs out, so does your magic."

"Gosh, that was awful fast," Mickey groaned, lowering the rod.

"Yes." Yen Sid reached into his robe sleeve and pulled out a small, corked bottle with a bluish liquid inside. "However, there are ways to replenish that energy. It will come back on its own over time, if you let it. This substance, called an ether, will replenish it quicker."

"That's swell! I'll have to get a whole buncha those!"

His master extended the bottle to him with a warning. "Ethers are nice, but they are difficult to make and therefore hard to come by. The few places that sell them will charge you a high amount."

Mickey took the bottle, but hesitated a bit before drinking it. It looked like some blue, sparkling goo. "So how do I get a lot of them?"

"The wisest thing to do would be to use your magic sparingly. Only cast a spell when the time is right, and your foe is the proper distance away. A single hit is worth far more than a dozen misses."

This made sense to Mickey. Holding his nose, he tipped back the bottle and downed the ether. It was a little bitter, but it made the stars-in-his-stomach feeling come back almost instantly. He put on a big grin. "I'm ready to try again!"

Yen Sid returned the gesture. "So you are. Perhaps a few more tries with the fire spell, and then we shall move on to one with ice."

And so they continued. Mickey had never found himself so eager to learn. Once he truly paid attention and focused his strength, he was able to hit the broom with fire easily. Next he attempted a blizzard spell, which made the rod go cold and his teeth chatter, but was very effective for freezing the broom in place. By keeping his magic in check, he still had enough energy left to test some thunder spells. They were quick and often accurate, but every time a lightning bolt sprang from nowhere, it made Mickey jump.

They stopped after the thunder spell practice to eat lunch. Yen Sid conjured for them tea for two, and an assortment of sandwiches and cookies. Mickey had never gotten to eat with his master before (he developed the belief that the old sorcerer didn't even _need_ to eat) so the lunch was a bit of an experience in of itself. As they sat, the broom set to work cleaning up the melted ice and scorch marks from the walls – thankfully never overdoing it. Mickey scarfed down his sandwiches in big bites, while Yen Sid sipped his tea slowly.

"You are a fast learner, Mickey Mouse," the sorcerer said in-between sips. "Still a bit stubborn, I feel. But a strong heart sometimes shines brightest through its flaws."

Mickey didn't quite understand what he meant, but decided to take it as a compliment. He had enough questions of his own. He swallowed, and said, "Why am I learning spells to attack things so far? It seems kinda weird to have to learn to burn or freeze stuff. How's that useful?"

Yen Sid paused mid-sip, and his expression almost seemed to take on a hint of sorrow. "Perhaps I can explain if I know more of how you think. You know how each day is divided into day and night? Part is full of light, part is full of darkness."

"Gosh, everyone knows that," Mickey said with a laugh.

"People are the same way," Yen Sid continued. "They have both light and darkness in them. Most have a fair amount of each. Some have mostly light in them. A select few are made of only light. But there are also some who are made of mostly darkness."

Mickey's brow furrowed. Darkness was a bit of a mystery to him: in his world, days were long and bright, and the dark nighttime was for sleeping. Light brought hellos and picnics and smiles, while darkness brought silence and nightmares. It was why the Cornerstone of Light was so important. "So these people with darkness are bad?" he asked.

"They are not necessarily bad. They are dangerous. Sometimes, that dangerousness can be used for good. But yes, often, the dangerousness is bad. Darkness is a powerful force in any world. They'll use that darkness to look for power, or to hurt others." Yen Sid stared hard at him with his last statement. "They may even hurt you."

Mickey gulped back a lump in his throat. Just when it seemed he'd learned all he could on this new world, now he was learning far more than he even wanted to know. "How will I know if someone is full of darkness?"

"By how they treat others," Yen Sid said. "If they consider the thoughts and feelings of others before themselves, they are a person of light. If they think only of themselves, their thoughts and gains, and care not for others' worries, then they are of darkness."

"Well, I was kinda hoping I could just look at them and be able to tell," Mickey grumbled.

Yen Sid suppressed a hint of a chuckle. "Well, there are those steeped so heavily in darkness that they become monsters. But the worst ones of all are those that still look like normal people."

"I don't know about this monster business! I've never seen any bad people turn into monsters before," Mickey replied, the skepticism obvious in his voice.

The sorcerer smiled. "No monsters? And the only darkness you see is at night? Your world sounds like a treasure."

"It's a swell place, but sometimes it's boring," Mickey sighed.

"A world is only as boring as you make it out to be," his master said. "However, this is why you must learn spells to attack. You must always be ready to defend yourself or others from those full of darkness, who would seek to hurt you."

Mickey didn't quite know what to say to that. It seemed this magic carried a lot more responsibility than just getting chores done or impressing friends. Was he ready for that kind of responsibility? After all, he hadn't done so well when he was just told to fill a pool with water.

Yen Sid seemed to sense his unease. "Once you are done with your lunch, I shall teach you a simple cure spell. It's a spell used for healing, and is often even more useful than fire or thunder."

Mickey liked the sound of that. He ate the rest of his sugar cookies quickly, and marveled as Yen Sid magicked the dishes away (probably to be cleaned by him later).

After learning the correct words and feeling associated with cure, the broom was brought out again and made to dance around the room. Yen Sid cast a gravity spell on it, crushing it to the floor and weakening it greatly. Despite all the trouble the broom had put him through, Mickey almost felt sorry for it as it struggled to stand. Concentrating hard, he pointed the rod at the broom and felt a tingling like flower petals inside his arm. A shower of green leaves appeared over the broom, and it hopped up again, reenergized. Mickey turned to his master with a smile.

Yen Sid smiled back. "Excellent. And remember, the better you become at that spell, the more powerful it will be. You could even heal wounds and fix bones."

"Golly! I want to learn how to do _that_!" Mickey exclaimed.

"One step at a time. We shall practice with cure spells more, and then perhaps I can show you that gravity spell."

The magic lessons continued for the rest of the day, and included instructions on cure, gravity and wind spell, plus practice with them all against a whole battalion of living brooms. Mickey had seen the size of Yen Sid's book, but still had trouble contemplating just how many different kinds of spells there were. By the time they finished, Mickey was exhausted, but with the good kind of exhaustion that gave you energy for the next day.

He helped his master pick up the rest of the room, and the broom was returned to the corner, unanimated. Mickey stretched and yawned, his tiredness apparent. "So, what're we gonna do tomorrow? More magic?"

"Yes. But before you retire for the evening, I want to show you a different kind of magic," Yen Sid said.

"A new attack spell?"

That same old, mysterious smile reappeared. "No. But this magic is perhaps the most special of all."

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	8. The First Shower

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** This stuff kind of had to happen plot-wise, but I hope I'm keeping it chronologically...logical, if that makes any sense...

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Mickey Mouse followed his master up another flight of stairs, to a nook in one of the topmost towers. This place smelled old, but somewhat comforting. Yen Sid stopped at a heavy wooden door; the kind that guarded secret places with skeleton keys to unlock them.

"Gosh, what's in there?" Mickey breathed, his exhaustion forgotten.

"A thousand different worlds," Yen Sid said, and carefully swung the door open.

Mickey rushed inside, expecting to see lights or portals to all kinds of new places...but instead met with nothing but shelves and shelves of books.

He slumped down again. "Awwh, it's just a bunch of books! I thought you said there was magic."

"It is the books that are magic," Yen Sid corrected, his voice full of reverence. "For each one holds a story, and each story is a world unto itself."

"You mean like my world?" Mickey considered this for a bit. "You think my world is a _story_?"

"Yes. Your world, this world, and all other worlds are stories. If you can learn to understand the heart of a story, then you will understand the heart of a world. And that is the most powerful magic of all."

There were times when Mickey greatly respected the sorcerer, and there were times when he thought his age had made him a bit nutty. This was one of the "nutty" times. "I don't know about all that."

"Well, I thought I would simply show you my collection of stories," Yen Sid said with a bit of knowing. "I will not force you to read any. But if you so desire, they are yours to explore."

Mickey edged into the library, still a little unsure. He noticed an open book on the table before him, its pages yellow with age. He glanced back to Yen Sid, who just gave him a nod, and said, "From here, your quarters are just down the stairs and to the left. Have a pleasant sleep, and we shall continue tomorrow." He left down the stairway.

The mouse apprentice mused over his options. He was awful tired, and sleep sounded marvelous. Still, there was something about that old book on the table that made it difficult to tear his eyes away.

He sat down at the table, supposing that just _one_ story before bed couldn't hurt anything. So he pulled the book up to his nose and read the first page, which began:

_In the very beginning, all of the worlds were one world, and all the people of this great world filled their hearts with light._

------

The next day's dawn rose slowly, as it usually did, for on this world this places between day and night were always the longest. Yen Sid did not find Mickey Mouse at the breakfast table, or asleep in his bed. Instead, he found him where he expected him to be: curled up in the library on a pile of books, with at least five open before him. He snored quietly, one particularly large tome open in his map.

Smiling just a little, Yen Sid walked over and tapped the mouse on the shoulder, stirring him from his sleep. Mickey blinked and then jumped to his feet, scattering books and pages like a flock of spooked birds. "Oh, Master Yen Sid! Sorry, I didn't mean t—"

"It's quite alright," the sorcerer calmed him. "I see you did indeed discover the magic of these books. Perhaps you can tell me what you learned from them?"

Mickey couldn't answer for a long time. Part of this was because was still getting the sleep-goo from his eyes, and part of it because he didn't know where to begin. He had looked through so many! He read how the worlds were created, and what made up the spaces between them. He read stories of knights who battled dragons and saved princesses from wicked spells, stories of servant girls who became princesses, and beasts who were really princes in disguise. There were stories of the lions who ruled over a great jungle, half-fish people who lived in the sea, the gods who controlled the heavens and underworld, boys who could fly, computers that could talk, and whales that could swallow ships whole. There were the scary stories of scientists who studied monsters and then turned into monsters themselves, and exciting stories of kids who built a raft to go on adventures. What could he say about them all?

So instead, he said the first thing he thought of, which unfortunately wasn't all that smart. "A lot of the words I couldn't understand."

At this, Yen Sid suddenly burst into laughter. It wasn't anything loud or obnoxious, just an old man's chuckle. But it still made Mickey get angry again, and he stomped his foot. "Hey, it's not my fault! This one room has bigger and longer books than...than my whole world!"

Yen Sid's laughter subsided, but only a little. "I apologize. At the least, I'm glad you were able to read at all."

"Yeah, I can read some. My world has a lotta comic books." Mickey shuffled his feet against the stones. "So...are all the stories here really true?"

"It depends on what you mean by 'true'," Yen Sid replied. "If you mean the distinction I think you mean, then yes, some are history, and some are fiction. Most of them are one and the same. However, all of them are true."

"Golly..." Mickey breathed, his mind awash with the wonder of it all. "I thought they were neat stories, but didn't think they'd _all_ be true..."

"Well, true to some, or true eventually, or true at one time. Such is the way of worlds." Yen Sid gestured towards the door. "If you are awake enough, we shall continue the magic lessons."

Mickey started to stand, but suddenly felt torn between one type of magic and another. Yen Sid replied to his question before it was even asked: "You can bring one book, for breaks between the lessons."

Nodding, Mickey scanned the pile until he found one that looked good –an old book with a picture of a key on its cover, laced with gold- and tucked it under his arm. He tromped back down the stairs after the sorcerer, feeling just terrific about the day ahead.

And for Mickey, it was a terrific day. Yen Sid tested his abilities with the spells he'd already learned, and taught him three new spells: a spell to draw objects close, a spell to stop time for one moving object, and a spell that reflected harmful spells back at its caster. Mickey was getting better and better with each try.

In-between the lessons, Mickey cracked open the book and began to read it:

_Of all the great powers in the realm of light, the most powerful weapon of all was the Keyblade. This weapon chose its owner, and could only be used by the strongest hearts in the world. _

_It was in the earliest days of the realm of light that the Keyblade first appeared. A great darkness threatened the land as people began to grow jealous and angry of their neighbors. The light of the realm was so loved by all, that many began to covet it._

As Mickey Mouse read, his interest peaked more and more until he could scarcely concentrate on the lessons afterwards.

------

But while the Keyblade's story was told, somewhere not so far away, another story ended.

It was a very small world; a little scratchy on the edges. But unlike Mickey's world, it sat very close to the realm of darkness, and was filled with long shadows. No one remembered what the world was, or who lived there, or when exactly it happened. Even the best of books and the wisest of men just guessed.

Their guesses said that a few bad things happened on this world, and that made some bad people. These people carried darkness with them often. It wasn't much darkness in the grand scheme of things: just a little crack. But that little crack was enough for the realm of darkness to notice, and it started to push in through that crack and make it bigger and bigger.

Eventually, the crack got big enough for the darkness to pour in and overcome both the world and its inhabitants. When it reached the heart of the world itself, the world broke into tiny pieces, and was gone forever.

This was the first time since the worlds had been created that such a thing had happened, but it would not be the last. Now that one world had been broken, its pieces would put small cracks in other worlds, too. There was a small hole for the darkness to get through to every world in existence, and no one had the power to stop it.

Yet.

------

Mickey Mouse did not see or hear this world blink out of existence. But he was one of the very few wthat happened to see the effects.

It was late in the evening, many days after Yen Sid had first showed him the library. Mickey was finishing up the last of his book about the Keyblade. It was only when reading that he discovered the book was divided into two different volumes. They each told very much the same story, but the endings were quite different.

And so far, he liked this ending better: _Just as the darkness threatened to engulf all the realm, the Keyblade Master used all of his power to stop it: the power of his heart to spread light to all the hearts he knew. And once the people's hearts were filled with light, they—_

BOOM.

Mickey looked up from his book. What was that noise?

BOOM.

There it was again. Forgetting all about the story's ending, he slammed the book shut and sped down the stairs two at a time.

BOOM –bumbum- BOOMBOOM.

The great noises were becoming louder and more frequent. His heart pounding almost as loud as the BOOMs, he ran down through floor after floor, out the front door and onto the island of green grass. His heart stopped short just as his body did.

Just like in his dream, it seemed the stars in the sky were alive. They fell towards the tower, with great white tails trailing behind them. He watched as one of the stars plummeted towards him, and landed on one of the carefully-trimmed hedges. When the smoke cleared, he saw that what he thought was a star looked more like a brightly-colored rock, with pink and purple spots. A quick glance around the island revealed even more colorful rocks, and far more were falling.

"Woooow!" Mickey marveled, running back and forth on the grass to keep himself on his toes. He had never seen such a phenomenon before, and it was both frightening and beautiful.

When suddenly, Yen Sid opened the front door, his eyes very wide. "Mickey! Come inside!"

The urgency in his voice was unusual. Mickey cocked his head at him in puzzlement. "How come? It's kinda neat!"

"_Inside_, foolish mouse!" Yen Sid repeated, gesturing wide with his arm. His master had never sounded so angry...even his mishap with the broom hadn't created such a reaction. Mickey hurried back into the tower, and Yen Sid shut the door behind them, closing the BOOM-BOOM-BOOMs outside.

Mickey gasped for breath, feeling like he had just escaped a hungry dragon. His normally boisterous voice was now quiet. "What _was_ that?"

"An ill omen," Yen Sid replied, his voice equally quiet. "An omen of darkness."

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	9. On the Front Lines

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** I have a confession to make.

I absolutely love the Disney wartime propaganda cartoons. I got the full boxed set of them since they were just recently released on DVD, and since then I've watched them all multiple times. Even though several of them are...not so politically correct by today's standards, they're such an interesting piece of animation history that I love them anyway. (I also used to watch "The Spirit of '43" when I was five, not knowing what it actually was, and when I watched it again after high school my jaw hit the floor. XD)

Therefore, I just had to include a big WWII-propaganda reference chapter. If you haven't yet, get your hands on the boxset and watch them sometime, they're utterly fascinating.

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On the small and slightly scratchy world that Mickey called home, no one saw the meteor shower or heard of it from others. But had they been there, they would have heartily agreed that it was an ill omen, for bad things soon visited them.

No one was entirely sure how these bad events came about. More than a few speculated that it was because of their still-under-construction castle, since irony would work well that way. Castles, useful things though they were, were also symbols of power. It wasn't too surprising that someone would feel threatened by that power.

Part of the problem was that no one was quite sure who the threatened –and therefore aggressive- party was. It could have been people on the other side of their world, or it could have been people from another world entirely; one that lived close to theirs.

Either way, people got angry, and the small and once-bright world suddenly found itself at war.

This world had never been in a war before, and as such, no one quite knew how to handle it. At first they thought it'd be like a rather extended bout of wanton chaos: that things would get screwed up for awhile, then bounce back as they always did.

And, true to chaos, things did get screwed up. But they didn't always bounce back. There were houses that got destroyed but not conveniently un-destroyed a moment later. Food and supplies had to be conserved. Perhaps most frightening of all, their world finally understood the terrible concept of people going away and not coming back.

Quite a few of the world's long-time residents went away and never came back. This scared most everyone else, and it took a bit of coaxing to convince more people to fight in the war. But in the end, the fear of their entire town and castle and livelihood being destroyed by their enemies was greater than the fear of never coming back.

So it was that, along with most everyone else, Goofy, Donald Duck and even Pluto found themselves at the front lines of the war. Minnie Mouse would have gone too, but someone needed to stay behind and help take care of things at home.

As for Goofy, he enlisted to join the navy, and soon was sailing out on one of the great new boats that had been built for the war. It was a far cry from Pete's old steamboat, but at least these boats got to sail out to open waters and see new places.

Pluto wound up in the army, although since he could not actually carry a weapon, he was assigned other duties. He was made to guard a pillbox from enemy spies, which wasn't _too_ difficult until Chip and Dale decided to commandeer the pillbox for themselves.

Donald was the least fortunate of them all. He signed up to join the air force, since Mickey's first air-plane had led to a few newer and more combat-worthy designs. However, it seemed people trusted Donald even less than they did Mickey with an air-plane, so he ended up in the army instead.

And what a terrible place to land! Not two days into joining the army, and Donald found himself marching with other soldiers out to the front lines. They marched day in and day out, through snow and desert and terrible thunderstorms, so much that Donald felt his shoulders would fall off and his feet burn to a crisp.

When they finally stopped to make camp, Donald dropped all of his fear into a pile and nearly collapsed. All the other soldiers seemed to do fine pitching their tents, but Donald could barely fit his stakes in the ground, let alone get the tent up. As he struggled with a tangle of ropes and cloth, he heard a buzzing sound overhead. Looking up, he saw them: three air-planes, rickety and unstable as they may have been, flying proudly overhead.

"Oohhhh!" Donald wailed with a sad kick to the ground. "I wanna fly!"

"What's that?!"

Donald jumped to startled attention. The voice belonged to none other than Pete. While Pete _was _the king of the (still unfinished) castle, it was wholly expected that a proper king would lead his troops into battle.

Pete did not think leading an army had been on the job description for king, and as such; wasn't horribly happy about it. _He_ had imagined spending the rest of his days being waited on hand a foot, not training a bunch of blockheads how to shoot at bad guys. As such, Pete did his job in a very lazy manner: leading his army around in circles for days, giving them poor instructions on how to use their weapons, and hiding under his bed from any loud bangs on the battlefield. Considering the battlefield was often full of loud bangs, he hid under his bed often.

Of course, such brilliant tactical maneuvers did not score many points with his soldiers. It didn't help that Pete didn't treat them very well, either. Nothing but "Stand up straight, you lazy sod!" Or "Spit out that chewing gum and give me ten laps around the camp, moron!" It didn't seem as kingly as he'd first appeared.

And Donald knew Pete's extra-strength-foulness foul temper was now focused on him. He quivered in his feathers as Pete glared down at him. "You wanna fly?"

"Uh-huh," Donald nodded, still at attention.

"Hah!" Pete laughed. "And who'd let a blithering idiot like _you_ near an air-plane, huh?"

Donald may have been nervous about going out to fight, and may have feared Pete because he was king, but he could still never, _ever_ stand to be insulted. "Who're you callin' an idiot?" he quacked, stomping and shaking his fist.

"I'll calls ya whatever I like, pipsqueak!" Pete roared, pressing his nose against Donald's beak. "I'm the king around here, and I'll say whatcha can and can't do! Now you march yourself to the kitchen and peel every single potato in there!"

Donald steamed with fury, but still stomped to the makeshift camp kitchen to the beat of Pete's "LEFT! LEFT! LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT!" After all, Pete was the king and he had to obey him. But he certainly didn't have to be happy about it.

Even worse, once he walked inside, he discovered that the kitchen was covered from nearly floor to ceiling with potatoes! It would take him hours...no, days to peel this mess!

"Stupid fergnabbin' Pete!" Donald muttered as he went to sit at the start of the potato pile. "No flyin'. No fun. No girls! Just work work work work alllll the time."

Pluto, the mascot, was waiting for him by the stool, looking just as miserable. Not only had he lost his battle against Chip and Dale, even worse, he had accidentally swallowed a chunk of chewing tobacco when trying to impress the soldiers. Now the bloodhound looked greener that their army uniforms.

Donald seated himself with a grump, and took up a knife and a potato. "I tell ya, Pluto, this whole war stinks!"

Pluto gave a sad nod, too to even "woof" in response.

"And King Pete is the meanest ol' grouch I ever seen!" Donald continued. "I just wanna fly. Is that so bad?"

Pluto shook his head no.

The duck private peeled and peeled, grumbling and muttering to himself the entire time. But after many long, furious minutes of peeling, he began to slow. He realized that what really upset him wasn't just the work, or the scariness of the enemy, or Pete being a slave driver. The worst thing in all this badness was the things he missed. His missed his home, his friend Goofy, and his sweetheart, Daisy Duck.

He paused in the work to pull out a photo from his coat pocket. Daisy smiled back at him from the photo, and Donald sighed. He hadn't really told her how he felt before he left, either. "Awww, Daisy."

Pluto put his head on Donald's knees, his big eyes understanding. There were people he dearly missed, too.

------

One of those, Minnie Mouse, was feeling much the same way. With everyone off fighting beyond the river, their once-happy town seemed eerily empty. Minnie managed to stave off the loneliness by keeping herself infinitely busy. She spent much pf her time making flyers and radio clips to help with war efforts at home: "Save your bacon grease for explosives!" "Buy more war bonds!" "Taxes, to defeat the Axis!" She kept up with all the news and letters sent from the front lines.

Most importantly, she took care of the unfinished castle. The enemy was not yet close enough for the castle to be threatened, so there were no soldiers to help guard it. But it still needed to be watched, just in case, so Minnie took the job. Thusfar, only the throne room and part of the library had been completed, so she spent most of her time in there. Daisy Duck visited often, and today she helped Minnie organize more flyers.

They sat on the wide marble floor of the throne room, organizing Minnie's latest flyers. Everything they said echoed over and over against the stone surfaces, but Daisy had a feeling that wasn't the only reason Minnie was keeping quiet.

"These'll be just great!" Daisy exclaimed, holding up a blue flyer that read "V for vaccination and victory!"

"Yes, I guess so," Minnie sighed.

"Aww, c'mon, Minnie," Daisy said, her smile sad but encouraging. "You're gotta keep going, so that our boys at the front have the supplies they need! Now's no time to get depressed."

"I know you're right, Daisy. It's just so hard sometimes. And if only Mickey..." She quickly changed the subject. "I just wish there was a way for us to end this war sooner."

Daisy couldn't argue with that. "Me too."

At that moment, the great doors to the throne room burst open, and a new person strolled into the hall.

"Professor Ludwig Von Drake!" Daisy said in surprise.

"Indeed it iz, ladies!" the professor said with an overdramatic flourish. "And I, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, have now invented something that vill end zis var lickety-schplit!"

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	10. The Heartless Have Come

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Aaaand we're back with Mickey! Not much to say, except these sorts of chapters are still tons of fun to write. XD

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Back on the floating island of the colorful world stepped in long shadows, there was no war to be fought, but things were just as tense. Yen Sid had not been as relaxed (or as relaxed as the old sorcerer could be) since the meteor shower. In order to study what the material was, he took several small samples and placed them in his magical laboratory, although he didn't allow Mickey to touch any of them. The larger rocks were still left outside.

Since then, Mickey's days were more split: half the day was spent studying magic, and the other half Yen Sid locked himself in his private laboratory and worked on the fallen star pieces. Mickey didn't know what sorts of things Yen Sid was trying with the rocks, but sometimes he saw flashes of pink, green aned blue from the window of the tallest tower.

At first Mickey was truly worried, but then he became annoyed. During these times, he was left to his own devices, with nothing more than the occasional chore to keep him busy. Sure, he had all the other books in the library to occupy him, but now he just couldn't concentrate on neither books nor chores with all these new developments. It was clear the fallen stars worried Yen Sid.

But Mickey wasn't quite sure why. The rocks had only been dangerous when falling, but now they did nothing but sit there. After a week or two, the vegetation even started to grow back around them, as if considering them now part of the landscape. What could be so dangerous about them?

While learning with Yen Sid had made him more humble, Mickey still retained nearly all of his original curiosity. So he resolved to find out for himself what those star-pieces could be.

Making sure that Yen Sid was back in his study, he pulled his apprentice robes tight around him and tiptoed down the stairs. Along the way, he passed the room full of magic tools: rods, spears, swords, shields, and other weapons. Well, better safe than sorry. He grabbed up the magic rod he'd been using for practice, and continued out the front door.

Outside, the breeze was cool and crisp. Aside from the various piles of colorful rocks, the grassy island looked the same as always. Mickey crept out to the nearest rock: a big blue one with green and yellow spots. Wincing, he reached out his rod and poked the rock.

Nothing happened. Emboldened, Mickey now poked it with his finger.

_Now_ he received a shock. The rock wasn't hard! It was definitely solid, but felt more squishy, like it could be molded into new shapes, grinning broadly, he knelt down and picked up one of the smaller rocks. Again, it proved to be less rock-like that it seemed: it was incredibly light. He tossed the non-rock into the air, and it seemed to hang there for a moment, as if wanting to defy gravity. Mickey laughed as he caught the squishy substance again.

Forgetting all about his previous worries, he picked up three more rocks and began to juggle them, delighted as they sparkled bright colors in the dying light. His next discovery he stumbled upon completely by accident: as he juggled the rocks, one fell on top of another, and they squished together. Mickey was able to pull them apart again with some effort, but when he stuck them back together, they stayed glued, as if wanting to be joined. Why, these rocks didn't seem like rocks at all...more like colorful, gummy blocks.

Mickey was so caught up in his discoveries that he failed to notice the shadows under the hedges begin to move.

They shivered, wriggled, shuffled about on the dark grass, and started to crawl. As they crawled, they formed arms and legs and heads with twitching antennae. And as the shadows separated into distinct entities, Mickey didn't see or hear them, but he did _feel_ them. It felt like a thick cloud passing over the sun, or a cold patch in a warm bathing pool. He got little shivers all the way from his neck down to his tail. Something was definitely not right.

He turned around just soon enough to see them: the flat shadows rose out of the ground into solid shapes, which became small creatures. They stared at him with bright yellow eyes – the only feature visible on their blue-black bodies.

"Yipe!" Mickey cried, leaping back at their unexpected approach. "Who're you guys?"

They didn't answer Instead, they just continued to shuffle towards him, little antennae wriggling. Mickey would've almost thought them cute if not for the cold feeling in his blood. He somehow just _knew_ that these things weren't friendly.

"S-stay back!" He brandished his rod at them, trying to sound threatening. Perhaps they didn't have ears, because they kept coming. Mickey suddenly felt a cold terror inside him, almost like when he'd nearly drowned, but still different. That had been an accident, but these things _intended_ to do him harm! All of the weeks spent training suddenly felt useless in the face of a real enemy.

But still, he had to try. Almost failing to keep his hands from shaking, he pointed his rod at the nearest creature and cried "Fire!"

A fireball erupted from the rod on command, but it missed. The creatures didn't even seem to notice it, and now they were starting to surround him. One stood upon its two feet, showing that it had claws on its hands.

He needed a new spell. "Thunder!"

This one hit home, and the shadow-creature jolted with the shock of the lightning bolt. Mickey thundered it again, and this time it disintegrated into black smoke and dust. There was no blood or guts or any of the other nasty stuff Mickey had been fearing...just dust. It was almost as if the creature was made completely of darkness.

"Hot dog!" Mickey exclaimed at his victory. But he couldn't celebrate just yet. The other shadow-creatures continued to advance on him, seeming not to care that one of their own had just disintegrated. Knowing now they at least weren't invincible, Mickey launched a volley of spells at them: "Fire! Thunder! Blizzard! Thunder! Wind!"

The magic disintegrated the monsters one by one. But it seemed that for every one that disappeared in a puff of smoke, a new one crawled up from the ground to replace it. He just had to keep fighting! He used lots of his power to call down whole chains of thunder and swirling fireballs that blasted through the monster's ranks. The air was thick with the smoke and dust of disintegrated creatures. But it was working! He was winning—

When suddenly, the magic ran dry.

Mickey tried to summon a bolt of fire, but not so much as a spark came from his rod. His magical energy had run out!

But there were still at least a dozen of the creatures left, maybe more. And they continued to advance on him, heedless of the spells used on them moments before. Mickey glanced back towards the tower. Should he make a run for it? Maybe if he got back quickly enough, he could lock the things outside. But then what? Yen Sid could probably finish them off with his spells, but they would still threaten the tower. Who knew what damage they could cause to it? The way they slunk up from the ground like that, doors may not even stop them.

No, Mickey _had_ to stop these things right now. If he couldn't use magic, he'd just have to try the next best thing. So he held up the rod as if it were a club, and brandished it at the creatures. "You better stay back, or you'll _really_ get it this time!"

They didn't care. One shadow-creature even leaped up, its claws bared and ready to sink into him. Mickey swatted it back with the rod, and it landed with a soft thump in front of him. Before it could have the chance to try again, he hit it more, until it finally dissipated into black dust.

At least hitting them worked just as well as magic! His confidence renewed just a little, he set to the task of beating back the monsters. And once he got used to the idea of hitting (maybe, maybe not) living creatures, he discovered just using the weapon came easier to him even than magic. Mickey may not have been a big, tough guy like Pete, but he _was_ quick. He could jump and dodge and dart and scurry like any other self-respecting mouse. And he used all those skills to avoid the monsters while hitting them back.

Strangest of all were not these darkness monsters trying to attack him, or how they exploded into dust when destroyed. It was how wielding this weapon seemed to come so naturally to him. After all, he'd never used weapons before on his home world. So why did this simple too feel like an extension of him? He could have sworn that, for just a single second, the rod looked golden and flashed the teeth of a key in the long-shadowed twilight...

Then, quite abruptly, there were no more shadow-monsters to destroy. He was completely alone on the star-sparkled grass. The exhaustion of this battle hit Mickey hard, and he collapsed onto his tail. He'd heard about it from Yen Sid, but he'd never actually fought for his life before. And those creatures! They didn't utter so much as a squeak of protest when he destroyed them. They didn't bat an eye when their comrades died. They only seemed to care about getting him. What sort of creature could possibly act that way?

_If they consider the thoughts and feelings of others before themselves, they are a person of light. If they think only of themselves, their thoughts and gains, and care not for others' worries, then they are of darkness._

Darkness! Whatever those things were, they were so focused on whatever they wanted from him that they noticed nothing else. Could they have once been real people that were overcome by darkness completely? Had Yen Sid been right all long?

"Mickey Mouse."

He jumped to nearly twice his height at the voice, and spun around to face Yen Sid himself. How long had the old sorcerer been standing there?!

"M-Master Yen Sid!" he stammered. "I didn't mean to—"

"Thank goodness you're safe," Yen Sid said, his voice far from harsh. Perhaps he'd been just as afraid as Mickey had. "I realized you were not in the tower and feared the worst."

"Aw shucks, I can take care of myself," Mickey said with a nervous smile, although he was certain the sorcerer believed otherwise.

"That much I can see," Yen Sid said with a nod. "And it seems you have some skills with physical combat. I wish you would have told me sooner."

"I would've told ya if I knew!" Mickey shrugged. "I've never fought things like those before. What _were_ they?"

Yen Sid gestured to the tower. "Come inside. I believe we both have important information we can share."

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	11. Shipmeister's Humoresque

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Confession time again: I looove the gummi ship missions. Not the KH1 gummi ship, which pretty much sucks completely, but I think they improved the gummi ship flights a ton in KH2. I didn't even think much of it until I decided to try the missions on a whim, and it's addictive! I'm not much of a gummi engineer (I have a friend who's tons better at that) but I like to fly them. There needs to be more gummi love in the KH fandom.

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For Mickey Mouse, today was certainly full of all kinds of new discoveries. He had seen the gummy blocks for himself, had stumbled upon the shadow-monsters, and now he was inside the one place in the tower he'd never seen: Yen Sid's private laboratory.

The small laboratory, unlike the rest of the sparse tower, exploded with strange sights and smells. The shelves were crowded with magic books, even older and mustier than the ones in the library. Several glass beakers bubbled with stuff that smelled like chocolate and grass and salt from the deepest parts of the ocean. Star charts, strange writings, and even some old animal hides adorned the walls. On the table sat several of the colorful, gummy blocks.

"Those shadows you saw are connected with the blocks that fell from the sky," Yen Sid began, his voice grave. "Just as I feared. That is why I did not want you to try and investigate the blacks yourself. It invited trouble."

Mickey gave a bit of a chuckle. It wasn't _his_ fault if trouble stopped by his place so often, was it? "But why did the monsters attack me? Was it because I took their blocks?"

"Hardly. You see, after much research, I have determined that these blocks are actually pieces of a world."

He stared at the blocks in wonder, and echoed, "Pieces of a world?" He hadn't thought that bits of a world would look like _that_.

"Yes. It was after comparing them to samples taken from this world that I learned they were similar."

Mickey took one of the blocks from his pocket and examined it. It still felt a little squishy in his fingers. "But why would pieces of another world land here? Did a chunk of it just break off?"

Yen Sid's face was quite serious. "Far worse. This whole world would have been destroyed...completely gone."

Mickey's heart gave a leap, and his feet soon followed. "Gone? But how?!"

"You see how these blocks bond together so easily?" Yen Sid stated, sticking two of them together to demonstrate. "A world is a great being all of its own; not easily broken. Even now the pieces wish to rejoin. It takes a greatly destructive force to make an entire world disappear...a force of darkness."

"Gosh..." Mickey breathed. He didn't even think he could imagine a darkness so big and bad. Suddenly, and even worse thought sprang to his mind. "Wait! What if it was _my_ world that disappeared?!"

Yen Sid shook his head. "I do not know. Whatever world these pieces came from was not far from this one. I'm not certain how far your world is from mine."

Mickey didn't know what to say. How could either of them know whether or not his world was still there? But he did know one thing: he _had_ to get out of here as soon as he could and find out.

The sorcerer noticed Mickey's worry, but continued. "Such great darkness affecting the world would be carried over, even from the broken pieces. Therefore, it was left-over darkness that attacked you outside. It came with the blocks. Perhaps they were the only people left on that world."

This took a moment to sink in for Mickey. "Waitaminute! You mean those creatures were actually _people_?"

"At one point they were. No longer. Do not be concerned about harming them: they are not real people, but merely manifestations of the darkness within them. As you saw, they will not listen to reason, and they will not fear force."

There was a long pause, with only the steady bubbling of a small cauldron breaking the silence. Finally, Mickey put on a nervous smile. "But..._I_ could never turn into one of those things, could I?"

Yen Sid's gaze pierced the mouse to his core. "As long as there is even a bit of darkness within you, it is possible."

Mickey swallowed hard. "Then how can I get rid of all the darkness in me?"

"That knowledge is beyond even my understanding. Perhaps it is impossible. But—" he added as Mickey's face began to frown, "You need not fear the darkness as long as you consider those around you. If you always remember to think of others first, it will help you stave off anger, envy, hate, fear, and other things that lead to darkness."

The mouse apprentice twisted his toe around, feeling a bit sheepish. "Huh. I guess I haven't been very good about that, have I?"

A hint of a smile returned to Yen Sid's face. "Well I don't know how you treated others on your home world, but you _could_ stand to respect your elders more. Stubbornness and curiosity, while often an invitation for trouble, and not necessarily born of darkness."

This eased Mickey's fears a little. "Then I'll be sure to work extra-hard at it!" he said with a grin.

"Glad to hear it," Yen Sid responded.

"So now what to do we do with all these blocks?" Mickey asked.

Yen Sid shook his head, and picked up one of the blocks to carefully meld it between his fingers. "For that world, there is little we can do. It would take years of study for me to determine how a destroyed world could be restored."

"I'll help you!" Mickey offered.

"I appreciate the thought, but I do not think you'd want to stay with me that long," Yen Sid reminded him. "What you can do is help me carry the remaining blocks inside. I believe it would be safe to do so now."

------

Mickey did help his master bring in the remaining blocks, although there were three or four outside that were too bulky for them to even fit through the door. For the next week or so, the magic lessons continued, but Mickey took it upon himself to train in other ways: fighting with a weapon. He asked Yen Sid to enchant the broom so that it would spar with him, and the trick worked well. He tried all kinds of weapons when fighting: a staff, a shield, a spear, an axe. But he found himself most comfortable with a small sword. He could lunge and parry so easily he felt it was part of his blood, although he was still prone to making the occasional mistake. Part of him wondered, just a little, if he would ever see that flash of the gold key again. But it never reappeared. The stories he read about the Keyblade must have affected him more than he thought; that was all.

But throughout the continued training, Mickey still worried more than ever about his home. He had always just assumed that when he returned, everyone and everything would be exactly the way it always was. But if things had changed so much for him and for this world, who's to say it didn't happen to his home world, too?

Such thoughts distracted him from even reading his book collection. Instead, he idled up and down the tower stairs, fiddling with one of the smaller gummy blocks. It took lots of effort to mold the thing since it was so solid, but after pressing and pressing and pressing it so much, he had almost squished it flat.

How could he possibly make sure his friends were okay? Yen Sid's crystal balls couldn't find them. Despite all of the magic he'd learned, there was no spell he could use to zap himself back home. Heck, he couldn't even get on the train to go to the main town of this world. And there was no way a new air-plane could survive the space between worlds. After all he'd learned and done, he was _still_ stuck in this tower.

In his frustration, Mickey threw the gummy piece. It didn't drop like a normal rock, but its weight and shape made it spiral down slowly like a feather. Almost like it wished it could fly...

That was it!

Mickey felt the same as when he'd first thought of the air-plane on Pete's steamboat. It seemed like a whole lifetime ago now. But that didn't matter: the gummy blocks had brought darkness to the tower, but they also had a way for him to get home.

The mouse apprentice nearly tripped over his robes as he ran up the stairs. He burst into Yen Sid's study without even bothering to knock.

"Master Yen Sid! I know how I can get back home!" he exclaimed.

The old sorcerer turned around slowly. "I do hope this plan includes remembering to knock in the future."

"Sorry," Mickey apologized, but quickly moved on to his idea. "I can make a new air-plane out of the gummy blocks. They're light enough to fly, see? And since they're pieces of another world they'll be okay in space!"

It was clear that Yen Sid was worried about this, but had trouble actually finding a suitable reason for that worry. "I am not sure how wise that is. Should any part of your vehicle break, you would be killed instantly. And how would you propel it? How would you steer it?"

"Aw, I'll figure that out as I go," Mickey said with supreme confidence. "I've gotta get a bunch of blocks together so I can start building it right away!"

"Do not rush this, Mickey Mouse. I cannot help you on where your world even is. Hurrying off when you are not prepared is foolish."

Mickey's excitement dropped a little. "I know. But I just _gotta_ make sure my friends are okay."

Yen Sid's face finally softened. "Then I will help you."

------

Mickey Mouse had tried all sorts of things in his lifetime, as he was always eager to discover something new. However, those ventures often ended in failure. His concert to entertain orphans had not gone well, his stint at bull-fighting resulted in bumps and bruises, and his ghost-hunting business with Donald and Goofy had been rather disastrous on their first job.

But if there was one thing Mickey _was_ good at, it was building things. Transforming his ideas from a thought to something tangible always seemed to come naturally to him. It was a good thing this was the case, as the ship he would build became the basis for all other gummi ships ever used.

Mickey put together his contraption out on the grass, as there was plenty of room to work outside. While building, he always kept an eye out for the shadow-creatures, but they never returned.

It wasn't always easy work. He took all of the best-looking colorful lumps he could find and hammered, pounded, pulled and cut them into the desired shapes. Just shaping the blocks alone took days! But once that was done, he faced an even more difficult task: he couldn't put together the ship until he knew how to propel it. He couldn't use a propeller like on his old plane, because there was no air in space to push it. So he had to find some way to push the ship from the inside.

Yen Sid was able to help him there. After much testing, he found several special blocks that conducted certain kinds of magic. If a powerful fire spell was cast along the conductor block, it would launch the whole ship forward like a shooting star. A pair of rods tied together also served as crude controls to steer the wings and tail. Yen Sid even made him a special glass dome he could see out of, since none of the normal blocks were see-through.

Once the engine and cockpit were in place, putting it together came relatively easy. Mickey had learned from his first attempt with the air-plane, and knew how to give the vehicle better balance. Even better, unlike his old boxes and ropes, these blocks fit together neatly and stayed on without any glue.

It took Mickey many long and tiresome weeks to finish the ship, especially in-between doing magic lessons, fighting lessons, reading and chores. But at long last, his invention sat ready on the lawn. It was completely mis-matched in colors, with a red nose, purple tail, spotted body and orange and yellow wings. But despite its almost comical appearance, it seemed ready to fly.

It wasn't until the contraption was completely put together that Mickey realized his predicament. He had been so caught up in building it that the ramifications completely escaped his mind. How would he be able to find his home world in all that vast space? He didn't even know where to begin looking. And worst of all, he would have to leave his new home and new friend behind. Sure, the tower could be boring at times, but a place was only as boring as you made it. And he had learned so much here! How would he be able to learn more magic and fighting if he went home, where nobody did such things? What if he flew all the way back and no one even believed his story? What if the tower and Yen Sid and the monsters and the brilliant colors all became forgotten?

Or worst of all, what if he flew around in space forever, never finding his world because it was already gone?

These endless questions battered at Mickey's brain, and sent him wandering in a wide circle around his ship. Perhaps it was just a way to delay the actual departure, as people often do when given difficult decisions. But Mickey wandered around the lawns and tower for two days after finishing the ship. He'd probably still be wandering today if Yen Sid hadn't stopped him in the library.

"And here I thought you were eager to leave as soon as possible," Yen Sid interrupted his pacing.

"Oh!" Mickey snapped out of his thoughts, then appeared embarrassed. "I am. I just...am waiting for the right time. Yeah, that's it."

Yen Sid's expression took on a knowing smile. "I see. Well, the skies are clear, with no sign of poor weather. Your ship is ready. It seems now is as good a time as any."

"Sure it is. I only wish I knew where to go." Mickey's uncertainty finally came out.

"The space between worlds is vast, but your heart is the best guide you have. If you follow it, it will lead you back to your home," his master said.

Mickey felt a bit skeptical. "You really think my heart can take me aaaaaall the way there?"

"It brought you this far." The old sorcerer's eyes bored into his apprentice. "You wished fervently to find a new world, and it brought you to this one, even without a ship. I believe that if you wish for it hard enough, it will take you to your home, too."

Mickey could barely comprehend such a thought. "Gosh, the heart's a lot more powerful than I thought."

"Indeed."

And his heart suddenly gave a leap at the reminder of leaving this world. "What about you? What if I never see you again? How will I learn more magic and fighting?"

Yen Sid gave a bit of a chuckle. "Well, if you can fly to your world, I see no reason why you can't fly back. The space between worlds is not a one-way street, after all."

"Haha, I guess you're right!"

"Besides, there is something of mine that you can take with you," the sorcerer added.

Mickey's eyes widened. "There is?"

"Yes." Yen Sid gestured to the library. "The books. Take as many as you can fit on your ship."

Mickey gazed around at all the bound volumes: tales of pirates, monsters, princesses, thieves, fortresses and friends...all his! It just didn't seem right. "But Master Yen Sid, these books are yours!"

"A story is not a story unless it is shared with others," he said, his voice almost commanding. "Take the books, and share them with your friends. You may discover you'll need their magic when you least expect it."

"Gosh..." Any further words escaped Mickey as he began to scoop up his favorite volumes. There wasn't much free space in the primitive spaceship, but at least enough for both mouse and sorcerer to make two trips with their arms full.

And while they were up and about, they gathered the rest of the provisions needed: food and water that would last awhile, clothes, blankets, and a few of Mickey's training weapons. As they loaded up the gummy block ship, Mickey felt the excitement in him grow in proportion to his nervousness. He had never known going home could be such an adventure!

When the ship was finally loaded, Mickey hoped it would still fly. After all, it would be carrying much more than himself now. But there was no turning back now, after so much work, so he had to trust that these strange world-pieces would hold together better than rope and wood.

He now faced his master with hands clasped behind his back. In a way, this was almost harder than being zapped away from his friends unexpectedly. How did he say goodbye to a good friend? Someone he may not see again for a long time, if ever? He just wasn't used to this whole "goodbye" business.

"Master Yen Sid, I, uh..." he twisted his shoe in the sparkling grass." You've done so much for me, and now that I'm leaving I don't know what I can do for you."

The sorcerer did not have to think long. "There is one thing you can do for me."

"What's that?" Mickey asked.

"Just for you to remember." Yen Sid's voice took on that tone that Mickey knew meant this thing was very important. "Remember that when you were alone and had done wrong, that someone took you in and believed in you. Remember that, because you must do the same."

Mickey didn't quite understand, and it showed in his face. Yen Sid continued, "In the future, you may cross paths with a person who is alone and friendless, steeped in darkness. Remember that even great darkness can be overcome if the person's heart thinks of others. Be their friend. Guide them as you were guided, and you may save more than one life. If you pass on what you've been taught, it is the most that you can do for me."

Well, _that_ certainly wasn't the request he'd been expecting. He pondered over this, but couldn't quite imagine a person of darkness who would listen to him. He supposed he'd know such a person when he saw them. "Okay, I'll do it!"

Yen Sid smiled. "Good. You'd best be off, then."

So this _was_ goodbye. Mickey gave his best smile, although it was full of those I'm-gonna-miss-you wrinkles. "I'll visit you soon!"

With that, he climbed inside the teeny cockpit and settled himself onto the squishy blanket-covered seat. The glass dome settled over the top, sealing him inside. With the sorcerer giving him plenty of room, he turned around and created a fire spell on the end of the conductor block.

K-FWOOOOOM! The spark turned into a great burst of flame, propelling the ship forward. Mickey's head plastered against his seat at the burst of speed – he had never gone this fast before! (Not intentionally, anyway.) With no real wheels, the ship skidded across the grass until it sailed off the edge of the floating island and up, up, up into the twilight sky. Mickey kept expecting it to eventually tip over and plunge to the nonexistent ground, but unlike his old plane, it kept climbing upwards. Past the edges of the colorful island, past the clouds, and finally past an invisible wall that looked like a rush of see-through liquid.

Yen Sid watched the ship until it was no more than a twinkle in the sky. Mickey Mouse was gone...but not returning to the world he knew.

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	12. In the Hall of the Mad King

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** I really couldn't think of any good cartoons to connect; I really need to brush up on my Disney cartoon history...watch a few I have on DVD and such. :P However, I _will_ say that Pluto is still my favorite classic Disney character, and he totally needs more fandom love.

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Life continued to amaze the people of the small and slightly scratchy world. They had all imagined that once the war was over, their lives would go back to normal and they could _finally_ be done with this endless stream of chaos, destruction and confusion.

And the war did end, as wars usually do. But contrary to previous beliefs, things did not improve. They hadn't thought it was possible, but they got worse instead. Or rather, things went bad in a different way.

As it turned out, Professor Ludwig Von Drake _did_ invent a weapon that won them the war. Before, both sides had been using as explosives, as explosives did an excellent job of...well, exploding things. But they were mostly small ones, thrown by hand or dropped from the air-planes.

But the explosive weapon Von Drake created was much bigger than their normal ones. So big, it took three air-planes to carry it over to the enemy camp. When dropped, it made an explosion so explosively humongous that it not only flattened most of the enemy camp, but it scared them into never attacking again.

In fact, it scared the town's residents, too! They knew bad things would happen in a war, but had never expected that they themselves could make something that destroyed so much at once. The enemy was defeated now, but what if they made a huge explosive themselves? Why couldn't they just go over and be friends with their former enemies? It was better than sitting around in fear or feeling terribly guilty all the time.

Either way, all anyone really wanted to do was forget they'd ever made a big explosive in the first place. This suited Pete just fine, as he decided to take credit for it. After all, a _real_ king led his troops to victory with weapons and strategies that _he_ invented, not some old quack professor. And Pete was determined to cement his authority so that he could get on with his _real_ kingly duties: being waited upon hand and foot.

It was during this illustrious era of Post-War Being Waited Upon Hand And Foot that a few things got accomplished. Most importantly, the castle's construction finally completed. It stretched up high, almost to the clouds, with great looming towers that served no real purpose other than to loom. The citizens also had to work hard rebuilding their destroyed homes and roads. There never seemed to be enough supplies to go around, and the people still worked slowly, although not out of cheerfulness this time. With no place to stay, some had to move in with their friends, while others pitched tents in what remained of their yards. Because there'd been no time for crops to regrow, food still needed to be rationed. Considering all that had happened so far, many just expected some new disaster to show up soon.

Under these circumstances, it was only a matter of time before frustration began to grow in the ranks.

The frustration grew into resentment, and the resentment finally bubbled over into defiance. And that defiance came to a head on one dark-gray, overcast day, starting with Minnie Mouse.

She told herself and Pluto as she marched to the castle gates that she had merely...suggestions. But they were really more of complaints, and strong ones at that. She just wasn't quite sure how to express them. People were supposed to be _happy_ with their kings, not complaining about them and to them. It just seemed terribly wrong somehow.

As they reached the castle gates, Minnie realized that someone was already there: Goofy, clutching his hat and looking rather concerned. He gave her a warm smile when he spotted her. "Hello, Miss Minnie!"

"Hello, Goofy!" she replied. "What brings you here?"

"Well, y'know how my house was blown to smithereens when we was out fightin'? Well, I finally got some wood and bricks so I can start buildin' it again, but King Pete said I had to fill out all these papers an' forms an' files before I can even start!" He started to pull a roll of papers out of his large pants pockets, and they exploded everywhere until he nearly drowned in them. "And there's so many of 'em all kerstuffled in the wrong order that I can't make any sense outta them!"

"Oh dear, that's awful!" Minnie said, helping him pick up a few of the scattered pages.

"We never had to fill out all this kinda stuff before!" Goofy's head dropped in dejection. "And I just don't have the munny to ask anyone else to do it for me." As he scooped up the remaining papers, he asked, "So why are you here?"

"Oh Goofy, it's all sorts of things! I'm trying to run the community newspaper, but King Pete keeps telling me there's all kinds of stories I can't print! And we really need to plant the trees and flowers again so that the parks can reopen. But no one is doing anything about it, and Pluto has no place to run around anymore..." She trailed off, seeming to realize what she was saying. "I'm sorry, Goofy. I didn't mean to unload so much on you..."

"Gawrsh, Minnie, you don't need to apologize for anythin'."

Before Minnie could reply, a new figure stomped onto the scene: none other than Donald Duck. His hat was pushed forward into its 'fighting' position. "I wanna see King Pete!" he quacked.

"You too, Donald?" Minnie asked, only slightly surprised.

"King Pete promised that we'd get to fly for fun when the war was over! But he's keepin' all the air-planes for himself! They're just sitting in the lot falling apart!" Donald complained.

No sooner had Donald finished with two more ducks came up the road: Scrooge McDuck, Donald's uncle; and Professor Ludwig Von Drake. Scrooge immediately declared, "King Pete's demandin' so mahny taxes ahn tariffs that folks don't have the money to spend on goods! It's bad for me business."

"He schtole my credit for ze Big Boomer! He didn't invent it, _I_ did! I'm ze geniuz!" Von Drake said to no one.

Minnie tut-tutted at all the ruffled feathers. "It looks like we've all got big problems! Maybe if we all speak with King Pete together, he'll realize how important this is and help the whole town!"

"Yeah, he's gotta listen!" Goofy said with eternal optimism.

Donald's optimism was a bit more pragmatic. "We'll _make_ him listen!"

"But how're we gonna get inside the castle? It's always locked," Scrooge reminded them, pointing his cane at the raised gate.

The ducks, dogs and mouse only had to wait for a moment before fate answered their plea. The great drawbridge lowered with a clankity-clankity-clankity-CRASH, revealing the open gate before them. Out of the castle stepped a nervous-looking weasel, dressed in a guard uniform that was far too big for him. He unrolled a scrap of paper. "His Majesty King Pete the first requests an audience with Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Scrooge McDuck, Professor Ludwig Von Drake, and Goofy." The weasel looked up, and blinked. "Oh good, you're all here."

"We wanna see the king!" Donald demanded.

The guard weasel sighed visibly. "Follow me, please."

They did so. Outside, the castle looked rather imposing and dull, but it was nothing compared to the inside! The five found themselves shocked at how poorly their hard-built castle had been treated: trash was scattered everywhere, the trees and plants wilted for lack of water, and the few guards in the halls looked uncomfortable and slouched.

The guard escorted them into the throne room, which confirmed their worst fears. The place was a total mess, with dirt and trash and unsigned proclamations all over the floor. King Pete lounged all over the throne, munching noisily on a drumstick. It looked like since his time as king he'd grown bigger and meaner than ever before. The bigger part certainly shocked no one, as on either side on his throne stood two buffet tables covered in ham, chicken, fruits and grapes, sandwiches, cheese, chips and cookies, cakes and ice cream. All of the food existed in various stages of half-eaten. But weren't they still rationing sugar and butter? Why did King Pete get to have all that food, in that case?

King Pete gave them all a scowly smile, and shooed away the servants that waved palm fronds over him. "Aha, just the folks I wanted t' see! Y'see, I gots me a big project I want done, and youse guys have more brains than most others!"

Before any could protest, he stood up and waddled towards them, still clutching the drumstick. "I wants t' build a giant statue, in my honor! We'll put it in the town square, so folks will always know that King Pete is watchin' over 'em! It'll be a hundred feet high!" He waved the drumstick over his head as if to illustrate. "And I want it done by the end of the week, so you better get started designin' and buildin' it right away."

The other five just stood there for a minute, completely lost for words. The words must have all been hiding in the same place, because they found them all at once:

"King Pete, this isn't fair! We've already been working so hard, and—"

"—You're taking credit for ze Big Boomer, it vas _my_ invention—"

"—Won't let us even near the flabbergabbin' planes, and—"

"—Just can't make any sense outta them and my house—"

"—The economy cannae take any mair—"

"—Woof woof woof! Woof woof—"

"SILENCE!" Pete roared over the din, stopping their tirades dead. "Now, what part of 'build me a statue' do you louts not understand? I thought I explained it clear enough!"

"We're not gonna build you any big statue!" Donald squawked, stomping in a fury.

While Pete blubbered in incoherency at the defiance, Minnie explained, "We've just already been working so hard to get this town back together after the war, and we don't have the supplies or the time we need! It's not right to have to use that time just to build a statue."

"And it ain't really fair for us to help you with everything if you won't help us even a little," Goofy finished.

King Pete looked positively boiling, with his face gone red as an apple. "_I'm_ the king of this here castle, and I worked hardest of all to get that way! So you pipsqueaks have to do everything I say!" He brandished the chicken drumstick as if it were a sword. "And you gotta do it _without_ any _backtalkin'_!"

Perhaps it was just the stress of the situation, coupled up with nearly half a year's worth of frustration. But Minnie Mouse found herself getting quite bold. "I think you're just saying that because you could never get Mickey to listen to you!"

The red color in King Pete's face instantly became a deep purple. "Mickey Mouse?! Why, that little runt was nothin' but a troublemaker! Lazy, good-for-nuttin' mouse...he deserved to get blown up by the cornerstone!"

"Don't you dare talk about Mickey that way, you...you big bully!" she shouted back.

That did it. "Oh, _yeah_?! I'll show _you_ who's a bully, missy!" And with that, he dropped his drumstick and aimed his king-sized boot, right for a kick at her.

But before that kick found its mark, two bodies stepped into its path. Donald and Goofy stood in front of Minnie, their arms outstretched. Goofy's normally laid-back disposition suddenly became quite serious. "We're not gonna let you hurt Minnie!"

"Yeah, she's our friend!" Donald added. Pluto leapt up front, growling to show that they _all_ meant business.

"You can't stand against me! _I'm_ the king!" Pete bellowed, and shoved Donald and Goofy to the side with one sweep of his arm. Shocked and incensed, Minnie fought back. She swung her rather hefty purse, and –WHACK!- smacked him right on the noggin. As Pete reeled, Pluto whirled around, and –CHOMP!- bit him soundly on the leg.

"YEEOOOW!" Pete howled, hopping around until he finally kicked off Pluto. Donald and Goofy bounced right back up to help again, but Pete grabbed them both by the scruff of the neck. "GUARDS! Arrest all of these little rats immediately! They tried to kill the king!"

Dozens of guards came streaming in at their king's screeching. Donald and Goofy raised their fists as if to fight, even though they knew there was nothing they could do. The guards clamped chains around their wrists, rendering them defenseless.

"Ye cannae do this! I'm a model, upstandin' citizen!" Scrooge McDuck cried, but as far as the guards were concerned, model and upstanding citizens didn't matter compared to their frightening king. The other two ducks and Minnie Mouse soon found their hands bound, too.

"King Pete, this isn't right, and you know it!" Minnie cried.

"That's 'Your Majesty' to _you_, little mouse!" Pete said with a sneer. "Maybe you'll learn to get it right after a few years in the _dungeon_!"

"Oh, no!" Minnie struggled against the chains on her wrists, but they would not budge. Pete's bellowing laughter echoed harshly against the high walls.

"Woof! Woof-woof woof!" But one of the small party was still free, darting, between the guards' legs with ease. If one of them could escape the dungeons, they still had a chance!"

"Run, Pluto! Run and get help!" Minnie shouted. Pluto understood, and bolted for the exit.

"Stop that mutt!" King Pete commanded, trying to snatch the bloodhound by the collar. But Pluto was too fast for them all, and he raced out the throne room, down the halls, and over the drawbridge just as it started to close. He didn't stop running until he was a fair distance away from the castle, and saw no guards after him. He was safe!

But now what could he do? All of his friends were now locked up in the castle, so he couldn't run to any of them. Who could he warn? If the big, smelly king could capture his friends, whom _couldn't_ he capture?

Distraught, he began to whimper and howl. He'd failed to protect Mickey's sweetheart and best friends! What would his master say if he saw him now? Why'd he have to up and disappear in the first place? Pluto had never felt so alone.

"Hey hey what's the matter, Pluto?"

"Yeah, what're you blubberin' about?"

Pluto looked up, only to see his chipmunk rivals, Chip and Dale. He gave them a warning snarl to let them know they weren't welcome.

"Aw hey, settle down, pooch! What's wrong?" Chip asked.

"Yeah, we won't bug ya right now," Dale added.

Well, an annoying ear was better than none at all. Pluto launched into a series of charades, detailing how they'd entered the castle, talking with the King and made him mad. Of course, Chip and Dale understood his wild doggy motions completely.

"Golly! So King Pete threw Minnie and everyone else in the dungeons!" Chip lamented.

"Gee whiz, that's awful!" Dale agreed.

"We'll hafta do something about it!"

"Yeah Pluto, we'll help you!"

Well, the last place Pluto expected to get help was from two cheeky chipmunks, but he wasn't about to be picky. If it would help save Minnie, he'd work with them. "Woof!"

With that, the unlikely trio set out to devise a rescue plan, little knowing that the help they needed most was already on the way.

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	13. A Twinkle in the Sky

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Urk! I haven't written anything beyond this, so I don't know when the next update will be! And I'm starting a new school today, so my schedule's gonna be completely out of whack. :O I'm hoping to have the next chapter up soon, though!

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Now, the space between worlds (or Interspace, as it was later named), was not quite the same as space as most thought about when it came to science fiction stories. The distances between worlds were vast, but not so vast that it would take you years and years to get from one place to another...a few days, at most. The worlds didn't all orbit around a sun, but more around each other, sometimes slowly drifting back and forth to different groups. Light was light for the worlds; it didn't _exactly_ all come from one big burning gas ball. Even stranger, in some places there were patches of air and even gravity, as if a world was supposed to exist there but hadn't quite popped onto the scene yet.

However, Mickey did not discover most of these things during his flight. His trip through Interspace was, for the most part, uneventful. There were not any more destroyed worlds to create debris, and the shadow creatures (later known as Heartless), had not developed ships of their own yet. This was a good thing, as Mickey had no weapons on his vessel to defend himself with, and one good blast would have ended his story early.

He constantly had to keep using a fire spell on the conductor block to keep it going, otherwise the ship would stall and drift aimlessly on whatever momentum it had before. But this wasn't too difficult, and didn't need to happen so often that he'd run out of magical energy. He spent most of his time looking through the books, hoping there was some hint on how to find his world. However enlightening the stories may have been, they didn't enlighten him on that subject.

Through the glass dome, he could see countless stars twinkling in the purple-blue-blackness. If Yen Sid was right and those were all different worlds, then there must have been hundreds of them! Maybe even thousands! A small part of him wished he could go explore those worlds, too, but mostly he just wanted to get home.

Along his journey, he did stumble across one world in particular: a large one, not scratchy at all, and situated close to the border between light and darkness. As Mickey's tiny ship approached it, he could make out some of its features: he saw the roofs of a vast city, surrounded by a high wall and waterfalls. In the center of the city stood a magnificent castle with banners waving from its turrets. He tried to steer towards the world for a closer look, but...

TOINK!

The ship hit something solid and bounced away from the world. The jolt to the ship made Mickey's head spin for a bit, and he had to snatch the controls before the ship started to spin, too. It was as if the invisible liquid wall that surrounded Yen Sid's world was now solid around this one.

"I guess this means I'll have to find my own world no matter what," Mickey sighed, turning away from the castle-world.

This aimless flying was getting him nowhere! He had to concentrate on finding his world. Yen Sid had said his heart would lead him to his home, so he just had to figure that out. He brought up all of his best memories of home: getting ice cream sundaes and soda pops with Minnie; playing fetch with Pluto on the grassy banks of the great gray river; hatching new schemes with Donald Duck and Goofy on ways they could make money without really working. The memories felt like warm patches of sunshine hitting his face, creeping into him and lighting him up from the inside. He could almost smell the fresh-cut grass, hot dogs and lemonade. It made him smile, and it felt a little like...down, and to the right.

His hands moved that way almost unconsciously, turning the controls and therefore turning the ship. Yeah...that swim in the river felt like a down, and the fetch game with Pluto felt like a right, and then the kiss on Minnie's cheek was juts a tad to the left.

Mickey had never expected that actually _following_ his heart would lead him in such a way, and perhaps Yen Sid didn't, either. Perhaps the universe decided to give Mickey a break after all he'd been through. Perhaps he really was just lucky. But whether through fate, luck, or the true strength of his heart, Mickey's turning and dipping and climbing through the vast, empty space finally got him somewhere. He wasn't quite sure when he realized it, but eventually, he noticed a little gray speck through the glass dome growing larger and larger. Mickey stared at the gray dot hard, wondering if it could really be his home. Could it be possible?

But yes! As he got even closer, he could make out its features: the great river that stretched around and about the entire town, and the clusters of homes and shops. And he saw the castle, now completed, rising above it all. It was true: his world hadn't been destroyed after all! It was safe, just as he'd hoped, and he'd found it!

"Hot dog!" he exclaimed, and would've leaped out of his seat if there was room. He'd get to go home and see his friends again. Imagine the looks on their faces when he'd tell them all he'd seen and done!

But even as Mickey's heart did joyous cartwheels, there still seemed to be something a little off. Now, he'd never seen his entire world from above before, but he got the sense that it looked a lot less bright and a lot more scratchy. Maybe it was just because his eyes had grown so used to the bright colors, but the grays looks a lot duller than usual.

Nevertheless, he'd found his world, and now had to fly down to it. But as he approached, a terrible thought occurred to him. What if there was an invisible wall surrounding his world just as there'd been on the castle-world? What if you could only get out of places, but not into them? Then he would have come all this way for nothing!

What Mickey didn't know was that in the very bottom of the castle, beneath King Pete's throne, that cornerstone had plans of its own. Perhaps it was getting tired of the way things were going, too, or perhaps it knew Mickey would be back all along. It's also possible that it wasn't vaguely sentient at all and just happened to make a lucky coincidence. Either way, it gave a bit of a flash, and something deep within the world responded. It seemed to almost ripple, and the invisible solid wall around the world wavered enough to become liquid.

Mickey didn't see or hear this at all. He only knew that as he steered the ship straight at the wall, he slipped through instead of bouncing back, and was suddenly surrounded by fluffy clouds. He had made it! He was back in his world now!

He would have celebrated has his ship not been heading at a steep angle towards the ground. The fire spell was still burning, bringing him faster and faster to earth with no way to brake. It would be awfully ironic for this whole journey to end in a crashed vehicle once again!

Wait a second, he had it! Turning around fast, Mickey pointed his sword at the conductor block and cried, "Blizzard!" The instant ice stopped the fire in a haze of blinding steam. However, the ship was still falling, now pulled by the world's gravity. Completely unable to see for the steam, Mickey pushed open the glass dome and snatched up the controls. He was now so close he could see roofs and the tops of trees.

Keeping an eye out for any hazardous farms, Mickey yanked the controls hard to the right, hoping it wouldn't force the ship into a tailspin. It still plummeted, but at a better angle. Where could he land such a thing? He hadn't been able to equip the thing with wheels. No matter where he ended up, it was going to be messy.

A patch of space not crowded with woods or buildings opened up behind the castle. It he could juuuust steer himself there, he had a chance...

His wide descent brought him through a tangle of telephone wires, around a castle turret and skimming the tops of trees before he finally hit the ground. The ship bounced once and then slid across the grass with squelching SKEEEEEEEEE before it plowed to a stop, nose buried in a huge mound of upturned earth.

For a moment, Mickey sat rigid in his chair, not entirely certain he was still alive. He heard a faint hissing from the back of the ship, and jumped at the KER-PLUNK! of a piece of the tail falling off. But once the shock of the landing wore off, it was time to celebrate.

"Ha-HA! I did it!" he exclaimed, leaping out of his seat and doing an improvised victory jig around the wreckage. Who cared whether his ship was in shambles and his nerves were shaken? He'd finally made it home!

Or...at least what he _thought_ was his home.

It had looked a little different from above, but on the ground his world definitely seemed changed. It was still the same gray tones as always, but nothing looked quite as simple as before. There were more details in the landscape and buildings now, bringing out all the little errors of things they'd so easily ignored before. The nearby river crawled more than flowed down its path, and seemed half-empty. He wasn't sure what, but something had changed.

"Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof!"

Mickey's worry about the world instantly vanished. He recognized that barking anywhere. "Pluto!"

The bloodhound came sprinting through the grass, barking enough to make anyone feel hoarse. He pounced on his beloved master, pinning him to the ground and slathering his face in sloppy dog kisses.

"Haha, hey Pluto, cut it out!" Mickey laughed. "It really is me!"

Pluto finally let him up, although he didn't stop sniffing him or stealing more licks to his face. Clearly, he had all kinds of new and interesting smells that needed investigating. Pluto's ears perked up, and he finally noticed the gummy block ship. He growled at it, circling it carefully.

"It's okay, Pluto. This ship brought me back home! It won't hurt anyone," Mickey assured him.

"Hey look, there he is, with Pluto!"

"Gosh, you're right! It's Mickey Mouse!"

Mickey didn't see who spoke until they popped up right in front of him: Chip and Dale, both practically hopping with excitement. They perched on Pluto's back, although the dog didn't look terribly happy about it.

"Is it really you, Mickey? You were gone a real long time. And you look completely different!" Chip began.

"Yeah, like...all the colors on you got turned up super-duper bright!" Dale added.

Looking down at himself, Mickey realized it: while the world was in gray tones, he was still in the colors he'd gotten on Yen Sid's world. His ship also retained its bright reds, blues and purples...no wonder it had startled Pluto.

Chip and Dale, on the other hand, had a different reaction to the ship. They gawked in wonder for a bit before bouncing all over it, knocking on the wing pieces and climbing inside to look at the controls.

"Golly gee, wouldja look at this!"

"Look look, see here? I bet this is how it's steered!"

"I betcha if we could expand on that tail you'd get even better control—"

"Woah, hold up, guys!" Mickey said with a laugh. "I'll show you the ship, but I wanna show everyone else, too! Where's Minnie and Donald and Goofy?"

At this, the two chipmunks finally quit their exploration. Pluto stepped front and center to mime the story over again, but Mickey didn't understand his howls, shuffles and turns. He frowned as Pluto whimpered with worry. "Has something bad happened, boy?"

Luckily, Chip and Dale could translate. "King Pete's locked Minnie, Goofy, Donald an' everyone up in the castle dungeon!" Chip explained.

This was definitely not the welcome home reception Mickey had been expecting. "What?! Why? When? How? Where?"

"Yeah, they got King Pete mad over somethin'. So he had them all arrested!" Dale said.

"And Pluto got away, so we were gonna help him bust them outta the dungeon!" Chip finished. Pluto nodded to confirm that the story was true.

Mickey wanted to rush off and rescue them all straight away, but he'd learned enough to know that running willy-nilly into bad situations often ended in disaster. No, he had to stop, think, and come up with a plan. Of course, that plan involved acknowledging that Pete was now king of the castle. He couldn't imagine how it happened, but just the thought made him squirm. It was bad enough when Pete had just one person to boss around! And he just couldn't believe that Minnie, of all people, would do something bad enough to be locked away.

He could try talking to King Pete, but he doubted that would result in anything but a trip to the dungeon himself. Unless...

"That's it! I'll try and talk to King Pete about all this," Mickey said.

Pluto wasn't sure about the brilliance of this plan. "Woof?"

Chip had a bit more to say. "I don't think King Pete's gonna listen to you, Mickey! He got mad at Minnie over practically nothing!"

"Yeah, he might throw you in the dungeon, too!" Dale said with a gulp.

He opened back up the ship and began to rummage through his supplies. "Yup, that's what I'm countin' on!"

Now Pluto was really certain Mickey had hit his head when landing. "Woof? Woof woof!"

"See, I'm gonna bring a few things with me that'll help bust _all_ of us outta the dungeon. Then we'll see about getting 'King' Pete in order!" Mickey pulled out a few of his training weapons –a staff, a sword and a shield- and one of his books, and tucked them under his robe. He turned to his faithful dog. "Pluto! I need you to fetch me a broom! Meet me in front of the castle with it."

Pluto didn't exactly understand the point of such a request, but he wasn't about to disobey. Giving his master another slurpy dog-kiss, he galloped off to retrieve the item. Mickey then turned to the two chipmunks. "I want you two to guard this ship. Don't let anyone come near and try it break it any more."

Chip and Dale saluted as one. "Right-o! We'll watch it!"

"Good!" Mickey nodded. Making sure his supplies were with him, he ran in the direction of the high turrets.

Not even five minutes back on his world, and already he was in big trouble. Yen Sid would probably be proud. But like with the shadow-creatures, he couldn't afford to be hesitant. He had to act now if he was going to save his friends.


	14. The King and the Pauper

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Wow, I'm sorry there's been such a wait between chapters! Going back to school's kinda kicked me in the brain for the past month or so; and I haven't been able to write on this story as much. I hope it's at least somewhat worth the wait! Thanks for being patient!

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Standing before the imposing castle gates, Mickey began to wonder if this really was a good idea after all. He felt a little like when he'd first arrived at the door to Yen Sid's tower, except then it'd mostly been an uneasy curiosity. Now there was just unease.

Coming home wasn't supposed to feel this way. You were supposed to hug all of your friends and sit down with cake and ice cream and exchange stories all day. Now Pete had taken that from him, and truth be told, Mickey was more than a little irritated at that.

Pluto finally ran up over the rise, a broom clenched in his oversized mouth. He dropped the broom at his master's feet, panting from the long run. "Good boy, Pluto!" Mickey commended him, giving his head a pat. "Now, I want you to lay low for a little while. Go back to Chip and Dale and help them."

Pluto's happiness at being praised turned to distress, and his whined in protest. He'd just now found his master, and now had to send him off to take on the big bad guy all alone?

But Mickey understood, as always. "I know you wanna help boy, but if they see you again, you might get hurt or captured! Plus, they'll know you helped me get here. If you stay out of sight for now, I'll come and get you soon."

Well, that seemed a good enough reason. He sighed, then gave Mickey one last good luck lick before taking off down the path. Once certain Pluto was away, Mickey threw back his shoulders with resolution, and marched up to the drawbridge.

"Pete, you open this gate right now!" he shouted as loud as his voice permitted.

Much to his surprise, the gate complied. It lowered with a clankity-clankity-clankity-CRASH right at Mickey's feet. However, it was not because Pete had actually heard him. One of the weasel guards had just figured someone should try taking out the trash. Maybe a bag or two. The weasel didn't get too far across the drawbridge before spotting the very bright-colored mouse.

"Hey...ain't you Mickey Mouse?" the weasel blurted, rubbing his eyes with his too-long sleeve. "Everyone said you was dead."

Mickey hardly found this first statement to be appropriate for a royal guard. "I _am_ Mickey Mouse, and I'm here to see King Pete!"

"His Majesty King Pete won't see anyone without first asking for them himself. Not no way, not no-how," the weasel declared, turning up his long nose.

"But this is really important!"

"Oh, okay, if you say so."

The weasel guard sighed and gestured for him to enter. Mickey hadn't expected getting in to be _that_ easy, but he'd take his victories where he found them. He gave his shoulders one last throw-back for emphasis (and reassurance) before stepping across the bridge and into the castle proper.

Mickey's reactions were much the same as when his friends had first come to the castle. The trash everywhere, the half-asleep guards, the unkempt flora and abandoned scaffolding...it all made his heart sink. Sure, he hadn't been too thrilled with the idea of a castle, but he doubted the rest of his friends wanted something like this. What if the rest of the world had gotten this bad, too?

Then came the piece de resistance: Pete, still lounging all over the throne and working his way through the extensive buffet. The servants fanning him looked as if their arms were about to pop off from the labor. As Mickey walked in, broom clenched in his hand, Pete started to down a huge jug of root beer.

"Pete! I've gotta talk with you!"

SPFFFFFFFHT! Pete's eyes bugged out of his head before he sprayed out root beer, drenching one of the more unfortunate servants. He coughed and hacked and wheezed a few more times before finally sputtering out words. "Whowa...whatzis...b-b-b-but youguh...sheezfiffle!..."

Well, something that resembled words, anyway. Mickey waited for Pete to finish his blubbering, which he eventually did, a moment after shooing the servants away. He wiped at his nose and stood from the throne, glaring down at the mouse. Mickey recognized the same old glower he'd known before, but like the rest of his world, it was different. Pete had always been rather mean, and not the smartest guy around, but now something in his scowl seemed almost malicious. He hoped it was just his imagination...he didn't want to believe that the darkness had gotten to his little world, too.

"You!" Pete finally pointed at him. "How did you get here?! Where've you been all this time?" He paused, as if trying to figure out how best to order his outbursts. "And what the heck's happened to your colors? Why are you wearing a dress?"

"This isn't a dress! It's a _robe_!" Mickey yelled back, waving his broom about. It took him just a moment for the actual seriousness to kick back in. "And I'll tell ya what really happened! I went to a whole 'nother world!"

"Another world, you say? Paah!" Pete seemed to be doing at least a passable job covering up his shock. "As far as we saw, you just got sucked into th' cornerstone! There's no way you could've gotten to any other world that way. Probably just shirkin' and lazin' around somewhere wheren' we couldn't find ya!"

Shirking? Lazing about? Why, he had worked harder these past few months than he had in his entire life! Incensed, Mickey stomped a little closer. "I did so get to another world! And if was full of all these bright colors that made me colorful, too! And there was a sorcerer there, named Yen Sid, and he taught me magic."

"So some old doof taught ya to pull a rabbit out of a hat. So what? _I_ helped us win a war! We fought these bad guys with big bombs through wind and snow and rain!"

"I fought things, too! I fought a whole buncha monsters made out of darkness. I even killed seven with one blow! And why, I almost drowned!"

"A likely story!" Pete's face was going redder and more scrunched, and the small crown almost slipped off his scowling forehead. "Now you listen here, mouse. _I'm_ the king around here, which means I'm right and everyone else is wrong. I put up with your troublemaking shenanigans enough as a boat cap'n, and I don't mean to put up with 'em again now!"

"Whelp, you're gonna have to, unless you start treating the folks around here right!" Mickey shot back. "I know you've got all my friends locked in the dungeon. So you let them out!"

Here, Pete let out a rumbly, burpy laugh. "Or you'll what, pipsqueak? Sweep me to death with that broom? You can't hurt me!"

Just the opportunity Mickey was waiting for. Giving himself a moment to concentrate so that he didn't mess up the spell, and gripping at the sword clasped to his side to act as a channeling agent, he willed the broom to come to life. Two armed popped from its sides, and it leapt from Mickey's hand and jaunted around the room.

"Eee-au-au-au-WAAGH!" King Pete screamed with all the royal dignity that a royal dignitary could scream with, which wasn't much. He pointed at the living broom, blubbering, "W-w-w-what did you _do_ to it?!"

"Magic!" Mickey declared, and the broom responded by grabbing pieces of fruit from the buffet table and throwing them at the king.

"What –OW- how –OWCH- did –YEOW- but –OW-!" Pete still failed to find the proper response as oranges, apples, drumsticks and bread loafs pelted him in the face. Mickey couldn't help himself, and he collapsed under bouts of laughter. This was just what he needed now!

The barrage went on for quite awhile before Pete's face turned boiling red, and all his hair stood on end: a sure sign he finally switched over from bewilderment to fury. The anger burst forth in a spew of spit and shouts. "GUARDS! GUARDS, GET OVER HERE NOW! Arrest this mouse and that...that THING!"

And, just as before, guards poured into the hall. They were all armed, and some even had a few guns left over from the war. Mickey's laughter died off...fighting darkness monsters was one thing, but fighting real people was something else. He didn't want to hurt anyone. A few of the guards also eyed the living broom warily, but it abandoned its food bombardment and took off down the hall.

"Go after it! Don't let it get away!" Pete howled, and five guards shuffled off in half-hearted pursuit. Mickey pulled the sword out from his belt, and held it at the ready.

Pete whirled back on him, looking bigger and nastier than ever. His face was almost as red as Mickey's robe, which was quite a feat considering Pete was still black and white. "Thaaaaat DOES it! So you wanna see your friends? Then I suppose you'll just have to join them in the _dungeon!_"

Mickey had to fight to keep the smirk off his face. So far, things were going according to plan. "Ha! I'd like to see you make me!" he taunted.

Apparently, Mickey misjudged a few things: one of them being Pete's cowardice, the other being Pete's strength. The hefty king ignored the sword, and grabbed up Mickey by the collar. "I said I'm _through_ with you marchin' in and talkin' back to me!"

As he shouted, he gave Mickey a head-rattling shake, and the magic book fell loose from his robes and plopped onto the ground.

That wasn't exactly part of Mickey's plan. "Hey! Give me back my book!"

"HA! Like yer' really getting back your bedtime stories now, shorty!" Pete tossed the mouse at the guards, who enclosed him in a tight circle of spears and guns. "Take him away! I'll deal with him once I think of somethin' good for the dealing."

Now Mickey was not feeling nearly as secure in his victory. He would need that book eventually! But his panicked looks were met only with pointed weapons, and he was marched all-too-slowly in the direction of the stairs.

He did not see Pete blubber and grumble to himself, shout for the remaining guards to chase the broom again, and then finally pick up the book and open it.

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	15. When the Cat's Away

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Sheesh, that was...an even longer wait! D: Man, do I fail at this updating business, or what? Hopefully the next chapter will come out faster than this one...

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KWUMPH!

Mickey landed in a pile on the stone floor; thankfully not on any of his weapons. He shook the stars out of his head, dazed, as the door slammed shut behind him. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, as the only light provided came from the last rays of sunlight through a single barred window. The stones felt remarkably clean for a dungeon, and Mickey realized this was probably the first time they'd been used.

"Shhh, I fink someone new's here!"

"Well, they're gonnae know we're here now, ye blabbermouth!"

Mickey snapped to attention. He recognized those voices! "Guys, are you there? It's me, Mickey!"

Almost unconsciously, Mickey raised his sword and summoned a light spell, and a warm, yellow glow flooded the room.

"Oh, Mickey!"

He saw her first. Minnie Mouse looked a little bedraggled; a little different from when he'd last left her. But under all of that new detail was still the sweet little mouse he'd asked to go on a plane ride.

Before he could even process seeing her there again, her arms were around him in a tight hug. He had to remind himself to hug back, and when he did, he felt as if an invisible weight inside had turned into little confetti bits and fluttered away. It had been so long with just him and Yen Sid, holding another who was his size and shape and voice just felt so _right_. He didn't even realize how much he'd missed it until he felt himself squeezing back as hard as she did.

"Oh, I _knew_ you'd come back eventually! I just knew you would!"

Mickey fought off a tear. "Haha, see? Ya couldn't keep me away if you tried!"

"WAAAAAK!"

"Waaa-HOO-HOOEEEEE!"

No sooner had Mickey given Minnie an inch when he was pounced upon by two bodies: one his size and feathered, the other tall and lanky. Mickey finally scrambled out of their welcome-home hugs, feeling increasingly happier despite their poor surroundings.

"Gawrsh, Mickey, we thought you were a goner!" Goofy explained.

Donald did a somewhat better job of hiding his gratefulness, at least after the initial hug. He dusted himself off and demanded, "So where've _you_ been all this time? You just disappear for months an' months and we get weird kids with giant keys an' wars an' big explosions and then to top it off, Pete gets made king!"

"I can explain, fellas!" Mickey said, recovering his makeshift sword-turned-torch. "But I gotta warn ya, it's kind of a long story..."

"It's not ahs if we have anywhere t' go..." Scrooge reminded him with a glare at the prison walls.

And so, Mickey told the tale of his adventures on another world. It would be rather dull to repeat all that he said, but you can be sure he covered everything: from the bright colors and almost getting drowned by a broom, to the library and the darkness monsters, and to using the gummy blocks to fly home. There were more than a few interruptions from his friends, but interruptions were not something Mickey minded. When he finally finished up with how he'd landed himself in the dungeon, the question he'd been waiting for appeared.

"It's vonderful zat you've come to rezcue us, I schuppose, but _how_ do you plan to rezcue us?" Ludwig asked.

"Here, I'll show ya!"

With that, Mickey grabbed up his sword and pointed it at the wall with the single window. He almost started off the spell before realizing his friends were still standing in front of the wall, their faces a wide variety of confusion. "Ahh, you guys _may_ wanna step back a bit."

They did so, albeit with more nervousness. Mickey closed his eyes and concentrated on that spark of warmth that always swam around in his stomach, until the spark became real heat lighting up his sword. "FIRE!"

So close to the wall, the fire spell exploded against the stones, causing them to buckle and crumble. Amid the coughing and eye rubbing, a shaft of light poured into the cell, signaling freedom for its occupants. Once the dust had settled, they all looked to the hole in the wall with unanimous disbelief.

Uncle Scrooge was the first to react. "Oh, sweet freedom! How long have I waited for ye!" he cried, and leaped out to kiss the grass.

Goofy scratched his head as he stepped out, blinking in the afternoon sun. "Gawrsh, Uncle Scrooge, it hasn't been more than a day, y'know..."

However, the others seemed much more focused on the means of their escape. "Wah...guh!... How'd you _do_ that?!" Donald sputtered, staring wide-eyed at Mickey's sword as they stepped outdoors.

"It's magic!" Mickey replied with a grin. "Like a told ya, you can do all kinds of things with it! You can even build things and heal people." While this wasn't the circumstances Mickey had imagined for getting to share magic with his friends, he still enjoyed it.

"You never said you could blow stuff up with magic! I wanna try it!" Donald said, already eyeing the sword with obvious desire to try. "C'mon, lemme see that!"

"Hold on, Donald, it takes a lot of time to learn magic. Otherwise you might mess it up, like I did!" Mickey told him.

Donald started to complain more, but was interrupted by a thrilled Minnie giving Mickey a hug from behind. "Mickey, you really did it! We're free!"

"And the colors really _are_ bright on ya!" Goofy added, poking at Mickey's sleeve. Now that they were out in the sunshine, the difference between Mickey and the rest of the world was quite obvious. This contrast wowed all six into silence for a moment.

"Zis is a most fascinating phenomenon!" Ludwig exclaimed, circling Mickey and giving him occasional pokes in the side. "Vhy does zis hue not vear off? Are perhaps you schtuck vith it forever?"

Mickey hadn't really thought about it. At this point, going back to just grays would feel rather...odd. But would it be odder to be the only one with such colors on his world?

"Mickey, can you show us how you got those colors?"

He snapped back to attention at Minnie's unexpected question. "Huh, well...I dunno! They were just sorta there when I landed on Yen Sid's world."

"But I want to have them, too! Also, I want to learn magic, like you."

"Hey, I asked him first!" Donald squawked in the back.

Mickey's heart bounced around at the idea of his sweetheart flinging fireballs at shadow creatures. He stuttered back, "Minnie, you can't learn magic! You're a—"

"Oh, I can too!" she shot back, squaring her shoulders at him with an air of indignation. "I can take care of myself just fine, you know! I managed through all the bad stuff that happened while you were gone, after all."

Mickey found himself taken aback by the response. This certainly wasn't the shy young mouse he'd last seen parachuting out of his air-plane. All the extra details in her just made her seem more confident. _Have we really all changed so much in so little time?_ Like all big changes, Mickey found himself being both sad and thrilled at their effects.

"What're we waiting for?! Show us some magic tricks so _we_ can show King Pete who's boss!" Donald cried, tapping his foot.

"Vith zis kind of power, you vill be near unschtoppable!" Ludwig agreed.

"But we gotta be careful with it, or someone could end up getting hurt!" Mickey warned them. He removed the remaining weapons from beneath his robe (in those special pockets that you could keep unnaturally large objects in) and once again frowned at losing the magic book. "Donald and Goofy, you guys can take these. I trust you with them, and I think they'll help!"

Donald looked a bit disappointed. "Awww, why don't I get a magic sword?"

"Ahyuck, I like this one just fine!" Goofy said, picking up the shield with a smile. While it was about right for Mickey's short stature, it barely covered Goofy's face. Still, Goofy seemed entirely pleased with it.

Donald grumbled at not getting first pick, but picked up the remaining weapon: a strangely-shaped staff. He tested its weight in his hands, muttering something about how this would do until he got his own magic sword.

Mickey nodded at his two friends' choices. He couldn't quite explain why, but somehow seeing them like this felt right. They had always attempted crazy escapades together...this was just a crazy escapade that mattered.

"What, don't I get anything to fight with?" Minnie chided him. "And don't tell me that I can't fight, either! I'll show you that I can."

"I believe ya," Mickey replied, although his tone said he wasn't _quite_ convinced. "But I could only bring so much stuff with me, and there's no way I can teach you all this magic in just a few hours."

"Ye kin keep all her fancy magic an' weapons. I wouldn't know how t' use them!" Uncle Scrooge assured them.

Ludwig agreed. "I may be schmarter zan all of you but together, but I fear zose skills do not exhtend to hand-to-hand combat."

Mickey chuckled at their excuses. "Whelp, I know you guys can help in other ways! Uncle Scrooge, if you can go find Pluto, I think it should be safe for him to join us now. He should be by my ship; you can't miss the colors. Professor Ludwig, if you could go back to town and tell folks what's going on, it would help a lot! If we're really gonna stop King Pete, we're gonna have to show him just how many people he's dealin' with!"

The two older ducks nodded, and ran off to their respective duties. The rest awaited Mickey's orders, barely armed in comparison to Pete's lackeys, but still more than willing to fight. Mickey felt his heart surge with newfound strength...and it wasn't the same strength he got from taking an ether or potion. Not exactly the same type of elation that came from finishing a difficult task, either. It was more like...how he felt when he saw his world again in that black space, and all the thoughts of the people he missed. The warm-sunny-days-by-the-river-with-a-Frisbee kind of energy.

_It's because I've got my friends with me._

Mickey pointed his sword towards the looming castle. "Let's go!"

------------

Perhaps beknownst to Mickey, King Pete had taken an interest in the dropped magic book, and was currently flipping through the pages.

But _un_beknownst to Mickey, Pete _did_ know how to read.


	16. The Courtyard Battle

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** Another long wait for update, d'oh! I've found a little niche in my schedule where I _can_ write, though, so maybe the last few chapters of this will come out faster. (And yes, I just had to thrown in the allusion to pre-Mickey Mouse Disney cartoons.)

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News of the return of Mickey Mouse spread through the town almost instantly; as such news in such towns was oft to do. Not everyone really believed it at first –after all, Ludwig was known for his outlandish exaggerations- but curiosity triumphed over pessimism, and all the dogs, cats, horses, geese, pigs and ducks began to leave their shops and homes and congregate in the main square. After all, hadn't all this trouble started when Mickey had mysteriously disappeared? Maybe, just maybe, if he was back, that meant things might change for the better.

But for awhile, the people just stood around in the town square gossiping and speculating. That is, until Daisy Duck heard the full story from Ludwig.

"He locked up all of you in the dungeon just for arguing with him?!" she exclaimed. "Now Donald Duck may be a great big lout, but he's never done anything illegal!"

Behind her, Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie snickered something under their breaths. She shot them a glare and continued, "And Minnie! Why, she'd never hurt a fly! Not a _nice_ fly, anyway!"

"I azzure you, mizz, zat iz precizely vat happened to us all," Ludwig said, although he had to yell a little in order to be heard over the chattering townsfolk.

Daisy's fingers curled into fists, and her expression took on a similar look to Donald's – only twice as frightening. "Well, that just does it!" Tailed by the nephews, she stomped over to the very center of the town square. There she stopped at the huge statue of the town's founder; Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and climbed up onto its base so that she could be seen by all. "EVERYONE! Listen to me!"

Everyone did just that. For when Daisy Duck wanted to say something, it was in your best interests to shut up and listen.

"Things have been going wrong here for a real long time! And even now, when there's no war or thieves or strange things happening, things are worse than ever! And why? It's because of King Pete!"

The crowd responded with a unanimous "YEAH!"

"Even during the war, Pete only hid under his bunk during the fighting! While Clara Cluck, Horace Horsecollar and Clarabelle Cow died defending us! Do you think that's fair?"

There came a unanimous "NO!" followed by several quieter mutterings of sadness for their lost friends.

"And now, when our friends try to question him, he locks them up!" Daisy raised her fist to the sky, as fully incensed as the crowd. "So come on! Let's head over to that castle, help Mickey Mouse, and teach Pete a _lesson_!"

"YEEEAH!"

Ready at last to stand up and fight back, the townsfolk marched out of the square and up the main road that led to the castle, led by the troop of ducks. They did not know _how_ exactly they would fight back, considering they lacked any real weapons. But they _were_ at least determined to show Pete how they felt.

------

But at that moment, King Pete could've cared less what his subjects thought of him, or even what his prisoners were up to. _He_ had a book full of magic spells, and was trying hard to figure out how they worked. He'd gotten as far as realizing he had to concentrate real hard on the words to make them happen, and that it helped if he pointed something like his king's scepter while doing so. His experimentation had resulted in several pieces of exploded furniture, catching a tree on fire, and a loaf of bread that had grown to the size of a small car.

Pete couldn't be more pleased with himself. "Bwa-haa! Looks like that runt of a mouse was useful for somethin' after all!" he said with glee, exploding another nearby chair into splinters. "Why, when folks get a load of what _I_ can do, they'll think I was the best king there ever was!"

His next exploding spell nearly hit a jittery weasel guard that scampered into the hall. "Your Majesty! Your Majestyyyyy!"

"Doh-deh-gah-guh!..." Pete blathered off before regaining his composure. "What do _you_ want? Can't you see I'm busy?!"

The guard took a long time to stutter out his next phrase, perhaps out of fear of being exploded anyways. "B-b-b-b-b-but it's about the prisoners!"

"Well, what _about_ those doofuses?"

"They've escaped, and they're outside the castle, demanding to see you!"

"...WHAAAAAAAAT?!"

Pete's roar of rage almost echoed all the way back outside, where two mice, two dogs and a duck stood ready for anything. Mickey felt better than ever about this whole ordeal. With his friends by his side, there really was nothing to fear. And maybe, just maybe, Pete would listen to them, and they wouldn't have to use their weapons at all.

Goofy spoke first, pointing to the looming castle. "Look! I think someone's comin' out!"

Indeed he was right, as the drawbridge lowered with a CLANKITY-CLANKITY-CLANKITY-CRASH. Out of the front gate stepped Pete, flanked on all sides by armed guards. Pete looked just as furious as ever, but there was an extra sense of confidence in his scowl that Mickey didn't like.

King Pete walked out a little ways onto the drawbridge, but no further. It seemed he didn't want to get any closer to the mouse than was necessary. As such, Mickey had to shout a little to be heard.

"See, King Pete? Even if you lock us up in your dungeons, that won't stop us! We have magic, and most importantly, we have each other. So you're gonna listen, whether you like it or not!" Mickey declared, pointing at the large monarch.

Pete's usual scowl returned, but the smirk still lay waiting underneath it. "I don't know how you dolts got outta there, and I don't care! This is my castle, and I'll run it how I want to, see?!"

It was at this moment that the townsfolk arrived in the vicinity of the castle. At seeing the confrontation already in place between Pete and the others, they began to form a wide circle around the lowered drawbridge: close enough to spectate, and far enough away not to get hit by something. Mickey felt the pressure rising as familiar faces peered at him through the crowd. If they didn't take down Pete now, no one would trust him again.

"It may be your castle, but you ain't runnin' it right!" Goofy yelled back. "We just want ya to stop bein' so mean to everyone!"

Pete seemed rather incensed at this accusation, ironically enough. "Mean? I ain't bein' mean to no one! Why, it was this whole town that voted me king in the first place. _They_ think I'm doin' a good job!"

A sudden outburst of "NO WE DON'T" erupted from the crowd, followed by a plethora of excuses, explanations and complaints.

"We only voted 'cause everyone else got disqualified!"

"You hog all the good food!"

"—Never do anything to help us!"

During all the shouting, Pete's face explored the full range of colors between bright red and deep purple. Steam poured out of his ears and his eyes watered from the strain. Finally, he could contain his outrage no longer. "Yer _all_ a bunch of lazy, good-for-nothing pests, and yer _all_ gonna get taught a lesson for it!" He pointed at Mickey and his friends. "Guards! Get them!"

The small army of castle guards stormed across the drawbridge, baring their spears and occasional guns. However, Mickey worried more about hurting them than actually being hurt: all of Pete's guards were undernourished, poorly trained and too fearful to be a real threat. "Donald! Goofy! Take out the ones with the guns first!"

"Yes, sir!" Donald quacked, and the two friends jumped into the fray with incomprehensible battle cries. Their fighting methods were crude at best, and consisted mostly of knocking the enemy out with a bash to the head. Even Pluto jumped in, barking and darting between legs so as to confuse the guards and make them trip over each other.

A few stray bullets from the guns did get through, but Mickey's quick thinking and a reflect spell or two kept them from hurting anyone. The crowd in back began to cheer every time Donald and Goofy scored a particularly good hit, and Mickey felt his confidence rise along with his friends.

One big brute of a pig did manage to get past Donald, Goofy and Pluto and stormed forward to spear Mickey. But the mouse raised his sword and shouted a blizzard spell, freezing the guard in his tracks. The burly pig toppled to the side with a frozen squeak of surprise: the last of Pete's meager armed forces.

Mickey pointed his magic sword at Pete, and grinned with supreme confidence. "Is that all you got, 'King' Pete?"

He expected Pete to look defeated, but in fact, the king was far from it. If anything, his scowl had gotten more smirk-like and sinister. "So, you wanna use magic, eh? Well _two_ can play at _that_ game!"

Then Pete pulled out his king's scepter, and looked back towards the front gate. Mickey couldn't see who it was, but either way, Pete raised his scepter and ordered them: "ATTAAAACK!"

It wasn't more guards, or even trained animals. Instead, much to Mickey's horror, every single piece of furniture not bolted down stormed out of the castle. Endless chairs, a bathtub, galloping tables with the food still on them, dressers, beds, lamps, buckets, scurrying utensils, and a battalion of those cursed brooms all marched out with one single magicked purpose: to do them harm.

"WAH-OHHH!" Goofy cried, holding his shield out defensively. "What're we gonna do against _these_ things?!"

Donald swallowed, but said with determination, "We're just gonna have to fight 'em, too!"

And fight them they did, but with much less success. While a bash to the head worked fine on an armed guard, it did little against a hard wood table. Donald and Goofy threw themselves at the furniture, but succeeded only in punching a few dents into the determined wood. Pluto managed to grab one of the brooms in his teeth and snap it in half, but the enchanted broom pieces just popped back into two brooms. The bloodhound darted off, howling, as more brooms and mops gave chase.

For a moment, Mickey was paralyzed with horror. It was just like his first mistake with magic in Yen Sid's tower: Pete was inexperienced, just throwing spells about without any real control over it. But this was much, much worse. He almost didn't realize it when a full four-poster bed charged at him until it was moments away from trampling him flat. Out of complete instinct, he raised his sword and shouted "FIRE!"

The spell hit the bed dead-on, catching the posts and flapping blankets alike on fire. The flaming bed bucked and galloped in wild circles before turning to dive into the moat. Mickey took advantage of the distraction to race forward, dodging chairs and rakes alike in his path. He stopped once Pete came into his line of vision. "Pete, you've got to stop this! These things won't stay under your control!"

Pete only shot a spittle-filled guffaw back at him. "What, sore that I gots magic tricks of my own? Aww, boo-hoo-hoooo!"

"But you don't get that!—" Mickey's argument was interrupted by a scream from the crowd. Indeed, with no real direction or control over them, the enchanted furniture began attacking everything in sight, including the bystanders. The crowd panicked and fled in all directions, causing the furniture to take notice and pursue. Donald's nephews fought back by pelting their attackers with homemade water balloons, little good that they did. Even Daisy attempted to drop-kick some mops away from the crowd.

"Mickeeey!" Goofy cried out to him, holding off a wardrobe that was punching dents into his shield. "We need help!"

Donald agreed with a loud "WAAAK!" as he ran by, batting his staff at a nasty pair of gardening shears clipping feathers from his tail.

More than ever, Mickey wished Yen Sid was here to help. The old sorcerer would know just what to do! But he wasn't, and there was no way he could get there, so Mickey would have to try the spells himself and hope he didn't botch them.

"Everyone, hold tight onto something!" Mickey commanded, and held his sword aloft. "MAGNE—"

Fat fingers closed around his ankle and tripped him, stopping the spell mid-word. Mickey found himself hoisted into the air by one leg, and was suddenly nose-to-nose with an absolutely livid King Pete. The king raised his scepter as if to strike a blow. "I'll teach _you_ to meddle with me, ya dirty—YEEOW!"

Pete released Mickey, who fell to earth with a harsh FWUMP. The mouse looked up, expecting to see Donald or Pluto attacking Pete, but instead saw one of Pete's own rakes whapping him repeatedly across the head. "STOP –GAH! Gerroff – YEOW – stupid! –OUCH!"

It was just the distraction Mickey needed. He leapt to his feet and ran to the center of the chaos, yelling as he went, "Stop moving and hold on tight!"

Once at a spot where Mickey felt he could see all the wild furniture, he made his move. He pointed his magic sword to the sky and yelled "MAGNEGA!"

Immediately, the nearby furniture began gliding to a shimmering spot above his head, as if being pulled by a new center of gravity. But Mickey kept the sword pointed high, willing more and more of his magical energy into that concentrated spot. Beds, lamps and brooms further away got caught up in the current, which began to pick up like a tornado around him. Several of the townsfolk fleeing the turmoil almost got picked up too, and only saved themselves by clamping onto nearby fence posts or grass. The nephews almost got pulled in, had not Daisy steadied herself and grabbed Huey's hand, who grabbed Dewey's, who grabbed Louie's. The four closest to Mickey had to fight especially hard, but anchored themselves using the drawbridge's chains.

Still, Mickey kept pouring more and more magic into the spell, repeating it to himself as necessary. Finally, even the rake that had attacked Pete joined the rest of the flailing furniture in midair...although Pete had the misfortune of being carried with it.

And finally, when it seemed the magnet center would hold no longer, Mickey rolled out of the way and put all of his energy into one more spell: "GRAVIGA!"

A dark purple light encircled the remaining furniture before it all slammed into the ground with earth-shaking force. And it worked just as Mickey hoped: wardrobes crashed into brooms and rakes and lamps to crush them, tables splintered under their own weight, and the beds caved in on themselves. The whole area was filled with the awful CRUNCHCRUNKCRACKSNAP sound of increased gravity working on animate objects.

When the crunching sounds ceased and the dust settled, nearly all of the furniture lay smashed at the bottom of a shallow crater. Many bits and pieces of furniture still moved, flopping around like fish out of water, too dazed by the magic to really attack. Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto gathered around Mickey, all still breathing hard from their efforts. Even the spectators stopped their fleeing long enough to spectate a little more.

"Did we do it?" Minnie asked quietly.

Her question was answered in the form of Pete popping out of the wreckage. While he had survived the squashing spell (people of their world were used to a little unusual squashing and stretching, after all), his dignity had not. His bulky body was scrunched within the remains of a barrel, and a bucket had smashed itself firmly on top of his head. The once-proud king cursed and raved as he attempted to pry the bucket off, but lost his balance and rolled out of the flopping furniture pile with B-BM-BM-BM-CRASH!

Donald Duck did what any sensible person would do upon witnessing such a sight: he laughed.

Donald's slightly obnoxious "WAH-HAHAHAHA!" was infectious. Soon the whole town, including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto, were laughing themselves to tears at how ridiculously stupid their king looked.

However, the moment Pete pulled the bucket from his head, Mickey's laughter ceased. Pete was undeniably furious, but not in his usual, obvious way. His face didn't turn weird colors, and no steam poured from his ears. But his eyes held a strange, manic gleam that Mickey had never seen before and hoped to never see again.

"That DOES IT. I'm gonna make sure _none_ of you _ever_ laugh again!"

Mickey rushed forward. "No, wait, stop!—"

But too late. Pete had already pulled out his scepter, pointed it at himself, and shouted out what Mickey knew was the worst spell possible.

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Yeah, sorry, but I had to put a cliffhanger in there sometime! I'll try and get the next chapter out quickly...I anticipate there only being two, maybe three left!


	17. Mickey and the Giant

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** I believe this is actually the second-to-last chapter! Can't believe it took me so long to get here...but I can't believe it's almost over, either! Next chapter will be the epilogue!

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In retrospect, perhaps "the worst spell possible" was a bit of an exaggeration. Yen Sid could probably name several spells that were much worse. But considering the time, place, and person casting it, to Mickey, it _was_ the worst spell possible.

And the spell made Pete grow.

The laughter died off as Pete sprouted to twice his size, then the size of a small tree, then a large tree, and bigger still. First Mickey and his friends, and then the whole town backed off as Pete surpassed the height of the castle gate, his enormous bulk unfortunately growing in proportion to his height. His bellowing laughter grew louder until it echoed out across the fields like a foghorn, rattling windows miles away. Mickey and his friends had to run to avoid the widening shoes, although Pete's shadow still overtook them.

When Pete finally stopped growing, he was as tall as the highest turrets of the castle itself, and many times as wide. He was so huge that his laugh didn't even sound like a real laugh anymore, just a rumble from on high.

For a moment, he just seemed to stand there; the huge crowd froze in anticipation. Then Pete lifted his gargantuan boot and slammed it down on the gravity-made crater, causing the earth to quiver. When he removed his foot, all that remained of the enchanted furniture was a thick powder.

It was _then_ that the townsfolk resumed their running and screaming. Pete laughed after them as if they were a colony of confused ants. "HAHAHA, THAT'S RIGHT, RUN YA NINNIES!" His head swiveled around, searching the crowd. "NOW, WHERE'S THAT MOUSE?"

"Oh NO!" Goofy gasped, cowering beneath his shield. Mickey couldn't even think of a response. He was too overcome with the numbing sensation of déjà vu. _It's just like my dream!_

"Mickey, you've got to hide!" Minnie pleaded, tugging on his sleeve.

At first, Mickey started to agree. He never predicted that Pete would do anything _this_ reckless, and had no clue how to fight it. But then he saw Pete raise his foot again. "WELL, THEN I'LL CRUSH ALL OF YA AND GET 'M, TOO!"

"NO!" Mickey cried out as the lake-sized foot came crashing down again, narrowly missing a few of the slower townsfolk. The crowd was screaming in full terror now, running in any and all directions available to them, but unable to escape the shadow of the monarch-turned-monster. Pete stamped his other foot down, this time mere inches away from Daisy and the nephews.

"Come on!" Mickey cried to his friends, and they followed him into the open without question. "We've got to get him away from the townsfolk!"

As they sprinted across the field, Mickey reached into his robes and pulled out an ether: one of only two he'd brought back. And as he wanted to save the other for study, he _had_ to make sure this one counted. He downed the whole bottle in one gulp, and the flighty, springy feeling in his stomach returned instantly. Donald and Goofy were already ahead of him, weapons ready.

"Hey, ugly! Why don't you pick on someone your _own_ size?!" Donald taunted, hopping up onto Pete's shoe tread-by-tread and whacking his staff across the tower-sized ankles. Pluto was the next one up, and tugged at one of Pete's shoelaces.

The attacks certainly didn't hurt Pete, but they _did_ get his attention. His gazed turned down to his left foot, and at spying the troop of five, a wicked grin spread across his features.

"_DER_ YOU ARE!"

"Take cover!" Mickey cried as the boot lifted up again, Donald and Pluto hanging on tight. The remaining three scattered as it plummeted back down, and the tremors from where his tread contacted the ground sent Mickey bouncing over dirt and grass. He barely had time to recover before needing to dodge again. While this was far different from evading the shadow monsters, he still managed to put his mouse-ish abilities to use against this opponent. But if he could do it, where was—

"Minnie!" he choked out, searching through the haze of dust and shadow for his friends. "Minnie, where are y—"

And quite suddenly, all of the air was squeezed out of his body, as if he'd been crushed between two tree trunks. He left his breath and the ground alike behind as the life-squeezing tree trunks lifted him up, up, up to the height of the towers. There he found himself face to face with the mountain-sized King Pete...or rather, face-to-eye.

"NOT SO BIG _NOW_ ARE YA?" Pete's normal voice sounded like a deafening roar, prompting Mickey to cover his ears. "AND NOW I'M GONNA SQUASH YOU LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE!"

Pete raised his other hand high, prepared to slap it down on the other with Mickey between them. Mickey fumbled for the sword, hearing the wind whistle louder as certain pancake-esque doom hurtled towards him, faster and yet too slowly all at once...

K-TOINK!

Pete let out a howl and stopped mid-slap, using the free hand instead to paw at where the teeny shield has struck him in the eye. Mickey wasted no time, but found his sword, and shouted a blizzard spell in the direction of Pete's face. The blast of ice hit him on the nose, and he used both hands to swat at the ice spell as if being attacked by stinging insects. Of course, this meant none of his hands were holding Mickey.

The mouse suffered a few agonizing moments of free-fall, in that weightless space of time where the stomach bounces up into the throat and limbs feel like noodles. Then, as he started to fall, Mickey's free hand found some loose thread on Pete's kingly suspenders, and he grabbed hold. He clung to the rope-like thread with one hand, trying to get his bearings but not exactly succeeding. Where were all his friends? Would they even be able to take down such a big menace without hurting something or someone?

Another teensy CLANG! and a far louder OWWIE! from high up indicated that Goofy had retrieved his shield and thrown it back at Pete's face. Well, his friends were keeping up the fight, so he had to, too! He began firing off spell after spell at any vulnerable-looking surface, channeling all of his magical power into torrents of lightning and scorching fireballs. As he did so, he began to work his way back down the massive bulk of Pete, swinging onto handholds whenever he could. The magic was certainly having some effect, as Pete's roars of pain now churned out constantly. Mickey knew he was reaching the bottom when Donald's quacking and Pluto's barking reached him over the persistent roars.

When Pete suddenly moved with greater speed, shocking Mickey with its unexpectedness and shaking him free. He fell, this time with nothing to grab onto, and with no clue how close or far way the ground was—

"WAAAAAK!"

Mickey contacted the ground with a bounce...except the ground was a lot more squishy and feathery than he would have imagined. It took only a few seconds for him to realize that the surface he'd landed on was actually Donald.

"Sorry, Donald!" Mickey said, and climbed off him, although Donald seemed too distracted by spinning stars and visions of little taunting Petes to reply.

"MICKEY!" He barely had time to recover himself before familiar arms found and squeezed him tight. Mickey's heart gave a little cartwheel at realizing that Minnie was okay, but cartwheeled backwards again at also realizing this was the least safe place possible for her.

He took her hands in his own. "Minnie, you gotta run for it! There's no tellin' what could—"

"_No_ Mickey! I said I would help you fight, and that's what I'll do!" Minnie retorted.

"But what's King Pete doin', anyway?"

Mickey finally noticed that Pete had left their immediate vicinity. He hadn't gone far, though: he had tread back to the castle, and was reaching down inside the courtyard as if rummaging through a toy chest. As huge chunks of earth flew over the castle battlements, it became apparent that he was digging.

"How're we gonna stop him?" Goofy moaned.

Mickey racked his brain for a useful spell, the way he'd been able to stop the furniture. But in searching for magic to use, he discovered with great horror that he'd run out of magical energy.

It was at that moment when Ludwig Von Drake, who (along with the rest of the townsfolk) had been panicking in several different directions, finally panicked in their general direction. It was there he ran smack-dab into Donald, who had recovered enough to stand up again.

"It's ze end of ze vorld! Ze end of ze vorld! Ve're all DOOMED!" he wailed.

Minnie didn't share his pessimism. "Ludwig, we _will_ find a way to stop him, no matter what—"

"No, NO, you don't underschtand!" he interrupted, grabbing hold of Donald's shoulders and shaking him hard. "Ze castle courtyard iz vhere ve buried ze rest of ze BIG BOOMERS from ze var! If juzt vone of zhose zhings iz dropped, it vill deschtroy _everything_ in ze town and cover ze whole vorld in darkness! It iz mutual azzured deschtruction!"

Mickey didn't want to believe what he was hearing, but then Pete laughed and pulled up something that looked like a round, fat bullet in his fingers: a bomb.

Mickey Mouse felt some new feeling wash over him like a wave of broken glass bits. At first, he couldn't quite identify it, although the closest it came to was the same feeling from when he'd nearly drowned in Yen Sid's tower. And thinking of Yen Sid reminded him of something the sorcerer had told him.

There are those steeped so heavily in darkness that they become monsters. But the worst ones of all are those that still look like normal people.

And that's what Pete had become: the very worst of all, willing to kill everyone just for his own selfish desires. Perhaps the growing magic had affected Pete so that he wasn't fully aware of what he was doing, but that would matter little if the whole world was covered in darkness and void of life. This was no longer an issue of just stopping Pete: it was kill-or-be-killed, and he hated this feeling in a much different way than he had with the shadow monsters.

BOOM. Pete took one great, lumbering step towards them, dangling the bomb between two fingers. His face and shoulders were speckled with red-and-purple magic welts, as if angry bees had attacked him.

BOOM. Another step closer, and Mickey could tell he seemed only half-aware of the implications of this attack. "Show ya...I'll show ya..." BOOM. "Show ALL of ya..."

Minnie turned to Mickey, her eyes desperate, but determined. "Mickey, you gotta use a spell to stop him!"

"I can't, I don't have any more magic!"

BOOM.

"Oh no, oh NO!" Goofy cried, holding his shield over his head as if it were an umbrella for an approaching rainstorm. Donald seemed to have the same idea, as he cowered beneath the shield as well.

BOOM.

"Then use _my_ magic, Mickey!"

He blinked at her. "Huh?"

"I must have magic power, too. So use mine!"

The ground quit quivering as Pete came to a stop, glaring down at them through mean, uncaring eyes. And then his fingers loosened their grip, and the bomb dropped from them.

The moment lasted forever it seemed, the bomb spinning lazily in midair as if it had all the time in the world to annihilate them all. Goofy, Donald and Pluto refused to look, all seeking protection under Goofy's shield. The townsfolk were still too busy fleeing to notice it. But Mickey felt just as weightless as that instrument of destruction, and he found himself raising his sword without even thinking about it.

No sooner had he made his stand than someone joined him. Minnie stood beside him and clasped her hands around his own, shutting her eyes tight as if trying to concentrate. Almost instantly, Mickey felt a warmth spread from her to him: not the same bubbling, swirly warmth that came from magic, but close to it, and full of memories. It was her smile and laughter, soft picnic blankets and fresh-baked pies, and even her voice chiding him when he'd done wrong. It was all those things on this world and more that were worth protecting from darkness.

When that realization hit him, several things happened at once...or maybe it was more like several things took notice at once. It could have been the Cornerstone of Light that caused it, considering it had already been generous enough to let Mickey back home. Perhaps it was another, even more powerful force that Mickey would come to know in time. But either way, the results were the same: Mickey's sword shimmered and rippled in appearance until it became a huge, golden key. And from that and Minnie and him, a shaft of light exploded upwards. It grew wider until the two mice were completely engulfed in it, leaving Mickey temporarily blinded. The brilliant light seemed to drown out all noise, too, and it felt eerily calm in this void of pure light.

The bomb hung suspended in that light for a moment before it dissolved away in little cracks and sparkles, defeated by a magic far more powerful than the greatest of explosions. The light pillar hit one other enemy: the giant Pete, who had been leaning overhead to see his vengeance wreaked. The light, while it didn't dissolve any of him, hit in like a punch in the face with a glove full of bricks.

He staggered around as the light lit up the whole of the sky, and then started to fade. Too dazed to even mutter a word, he teetered towards the awestruck crowd...then tottered back towards the castle...then closer to the crowd again...

And he finally lost his balance and fell upon the castle itself. The great looming towers crumbled as if they were no more than a toy block house beneath Pete's massive frame. The crowd was too stunned to move even as whole chunks of roof and tower were tossed into the air, and not to conveniently fall back into place again. Trees toppled over, half the moat splashed out, and the huge drawbridge splintered into pieces. The collapse kicked up such a great amount of dust and dirt that for several minutes, nothing could be seen.

When it did become clear enough to see, Mickey was the first to step forward, still clutching the great key. His friends followed closely behind, peering forward to assess the damage. Their great castle, the symbol of their town's best efforts, now lay in utter ruin, with one tower and maybe a broom closet left standing. Even Pete seemed to have diminished, and it quickly became clear that he was shrinking. With his concentration gone and energy spent, the spell was wearing off at last.

By the time Mickey had clambered over the mucked-up moat and piles of stone, Pete had returned to his original size. He wasn't dead, to be sure, but certainly in a world of hurt. He groaned as he lay sprawled across a broken window, and every time he tried to move, some joint or other made an awful popping sound.

Mickey stood over him, clutching the gold key tight as if afraid it would disappear if he loosened his grip. Somehow, a tiny part of him knew what this key could do, and what _he_ had to do. For a moment, he wished that he had no colors again, and that it was back in his lazy steamboat days when the only reason to be angry with Pete was because of being made to work overtime.

Pete finally noticed his presence. "Aww, would ya stop that already?! If you've got time to gloat about winnin', you've got time to help me up!"

"No, Pete, I'm not gloating," Mickey said, and almost surprised himself with how serious he sounded. "I'm going to send you away."

Pete forgot about his aches and pains pretty quickly. "Away? Away where?! I don't have anywhere else t' go!"

The other four caught up to Mickey, breathing hard from the aftereffects of battle. The mouse pointed his key at the former king. "I'm sending you away from this whole world."

"B-b-b-but you can't _do_ that!" Pete protested in a voice that said he fully believed Mickey could. He tried to get up, found it too difficult, and finally settled for getting on his knees. "I promise I won't do bad stuff no more! I can fix everything that got broken! Promise!"

"You tried to kill _all_ of us and broke the whole castle!" Donald quacked, as if anyone needed reminding.

"You brought a lot of darkness to this world, and I care too much about it to allow any more," Mickey said, full of sad determination. "So you can't stay on this world anymore. Maybe on another world you'll find someone who can teach you right, like I was taught."

Pete seemed to realize his end was approaching fast, as he clasped his hands together and started blubbering. "P-p-please, just give me another chance! I promise I'll be good, if ya just—"

"Pete, I hearby banish you from this world forever!"

As Mickey spoke the words, the tip of the key began to shine with small lights and stars. Behind Pete, a swirling vortex of colors appeared, as if a slice of Interspace itself had poked a hole right in the air. The hole seemed to have some concentrated gravity to it, as it began to pull Pete backwards. The big cat's eyes widened in terror, and he clawed at the debris in a sad attempt to get away.

"Wait, no! Stop this thing, don't let it get meeeeeee!—"

But too late, as Pete was finally sucked into the star-speckled hole and disappeared just before the hole itself shrank into nothing. Where Pete and the portal once stood was now only fluttering bits of paper. Of course, it would not be the last they'd seen of Pete (for really, when was the last time you ever heard of _any_ banished person never showing up again?) But Mickey was right on one count: Pete never did return to that world again.

As the air quieted, Mickey let out a great sigh. Something else greater than him seemed to sigh, too, and the golden key in his hand suddenly disappeared in a twinkle of lights, leaving him with his original sword. It shocked him to find the key disappear just as suddenly as it appeared, but a part of him understood why. He would not see that key again for many, many years.

The breaking of silence spread from him out to his friends, and the rest of the townsfolk, who stood in a big circle around what remained of the moat. It felt like there should've been victory cheers, but the frowns on so many faces drowned out any happiness. Yes, they had saved their world and its inhabitants. But now their great castle, the symbol they'd all fought to protect and then fought against, was now in ruins.

"Awwwwww..." Donald sighed heavily, speaking all of their feelings aloud. Even Mickey wasn't sure what to do now. The key was gone, he'd been forced to banish Pete from the world, and he had no more magic to fix things. What could he possibly say to everyone?

But before he could break out of his stupor, the sound of clanking bricks reached him. He looked up to see Goofy, with his shield slung under one arm, stooping to pick up the brick pieces and stack them into a neat pile.

"Goofy? What're you doing?"

Goofy offered them a shy smile. "Well, it's gonna take us a long time to rebuild this whole castle. So we better get started right away, huh?"

It took Mickey a few seconds, but the itch at the corners of his mouth finally became strong enough to bring his mouth up into a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, Goofy, you're right!" The somber mood broke completely under this realization, and Mickey found himself smiling harder than he could ever remember. "You're absolutely right! We better get started right away."

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	18. See Ya Real Soon!

**The Mouse Who Would Be King**

**By Lynx (of Organization VI)**

**Rating:** K

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Kingdom Hearts or its characters; they belong to Disney and Squeenix, respectively. Please don't sue.

**Summary: **The story of how Mickey Mouse became king of Disney Castle is not the fairy tale it may first seem.

**Notes:** What to say? It's finally the LAST CHAPTER. collapses I'm so glad to hear people have been enjoying it so far, and I hope this ending is satisfying!

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Almost immediately, the people of the small and slightly scratchy world set to work rebuilding their castle. They never quite realized that, in the process of doing so, their world wasn't so small or scratchy anymore. At least, they didn't realize it yet.

What they _did_ notice was that, as often happens when you've already done something once, the work went a lot faster. They reused whatever pieces of the old castle they could, and cut new blocks when needed. They fixed any engineering problems that had popped up earlier, helped especially by Ludwig Von Drake. The building plans did change quite a bit: the towers wouldn't be quite so tall, and the edges not as rigid-straight. There was more open space for green things to grow. But of course, the Cornerstone of Light stayed in its place.

The work also went quicker because nearly the entire town turned out to help. Scrooge McDuck donated a generous sum of his fortunate towards building costs ("Ach, it's a business venture. New jobs will be good for the economy!") At Daisy's insistence, Huey, Dewey and Louie were there almost every day helping with little jobs or carrying supplies. Donald and Goofy practically lived on the site, although Donald did his fair share of complaining, as he was never one for hard labor.

During the building of the castle, there were other projects going on as well. Chip and Dale volunteered to repair Mickey's ship, or "gummi ship," as they had taken to calling it. Mickey hesitated at first, but after seeing them do such a good job repairing the tail, he decided to let them try the whole craft. The two chipmunks were delighted to put their tinkering abilities to use, and managed to rope Pluto into helping with more of the heavy lifting.

As for Mickey himself? Try as he would, he was often too busy to do actual work on the castle. Instead, the task of organizing it all seemed to fall to him. He had to delegate how the castle should be built, when breaks for lunch happened, and much more. He also spent a good deal of time teaching magic, as both Donald and Minnie insisted they learn it. When asked, Goofy just shrugged and said, "Oh, I'll just learn it when you're not busy."

Mickey was certainly not as good a teacher as Yen Sid, but in being forced to teach, he discovered he learned more himself. Surprisingly, Donald picked up on magic quickly, although is first few tries often ended with singed tail feathers. Minnie was a different case altogether: she found it difficult to do simple spells like fire and blizzard. However, she had a great knack for certain defensive and holy spells that even Mickey had been unable to do properly for Yen Sid. Minnie didn't care what spells she conjured; she was happy to be doing it at all.

Between castle planning, magic lessons and checking up on the gummi ship, Mickey had little time to himself. The few moments he was able to get away usually came at night, when he would bring some books and a flashlight with him and sit out under the stars. He read by the light of the flashlight, and when he couldn't concentrate on the words anymore, he tried to pinpoint this strange feeling that had taken hold of him. He was home, his friends were safe, and the castle was growing more complete by the day. So why did something still feel amiss? Why did looking up at all of those countless stars make him feel...lonely?

It wasn't until the castle was more than halfway completed when Minnie found him out in the fields one evening. He almost didn't hear her approach, but certainly heard the quiet clearing of her throat when she stopped over him. "What're you doing out here, Mickey?"

"Oh, nothin'. I'm just thinkin'."

Minnie frowned. "You're not thinking about leaving again, are you? 'Cause you're acting just the same as before you disappeared."

The worry in her voice came through loud and clear, and he turned to face her. "Oh Minnie, I'm not gonna disappear again! It's just..." He sighed. "When I was on Yen Sid's world, I missed you and my home and all my friends. But now that I'm home again, I miss being out on another world and discovering something new every day. It's like...you don't realize how important something is until it's not there anymore."

"Mickey..." Minnie turned and sat down beside him in the damp grass. "I may not have gone to another world, but I know how you feel."

Mickey glanced down at the open book in his lap. "So what's there to do about it?"

There was a long pause; so quiet that Mickey was almost startled when Minnie answered him. "Well, I guess all we can do is take a little piece of the things we miss with us. That way, wherever we are, we'll always have that reminder of what was so special."

Mickey thought and thought over this. He thought about it all the way back home with Minnie, right up until they said goodnight and went to their respective rooms. He had books and clothes and weapons from Yen Sid's world, but it wasn't quite enough. What more could he do to make his friends feel that same wonder as when he'd first discovered a new world? How could their two worlds really connect?"

And, as good ideas often do, he had his answer just before drifting off to sleep.

------

In the weeks that followed, the town worked even harder and faster, because they knew the new castle was so close to completion. Towers and columns seemed to spring up overnight from their efforts. A few days before the castle was completed, Chip and Dale finished repairing the gummi ship, and Mickey took it for its first test flight around the town. The chipmunks had really outdone themselves: not only was the steering greatly improved, but also the simple conductor block had been replaced with a real engine that integrated beautifully with the actual gummis. Even Donald finally got his chance to fly by giving the ship its second test run. Like magic, he took a liking to it instantly.

Meanwhile, Mickey used his spare time to continue his reading, but of his spell books rather than his story ones. He refused to say to his friends what it was about, but whatever it was, it seemed to encompass pages of reading and lots of concentration.

The castle finally reopened on a bright day towards the end of May: the kind of day with all the new life left over from spring and all the excitement coming with summer mixed together. The whole town gathered around the castle moat once more: this time not to fight, but to celebrate. The castle looked brighter and grander than ever in the spring-summer sunshine, and sandwiches, cookies and lemonade were available for everyone present. Front and center stood Daisy and the three nephews, Scrooge McDuck, Ludwig Von Drake, Pluto and the two chipmunks, all with flags and balloons. After months of toil, war, disaster and uncertainty, this was at last the moment they'd been waiting for!

You would assume that this would be the precise moment for everything to go wrong. But not this time, as enough wrong had gone on for things to finally go right.

Donald, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie stood at the front of the lowered drawbridge, ready to present the finished castle. They had worked many long days for this moment, but you never would've known it for the smiles on their faces.

"Folks, we're proud to present to you: our brand new castle!"

The townsfolk cheered at Mickey's proclamation, and the band struck up a tune. "And this time, it's not gonna be a bad place. We want it to be a source of joy and inspiration, for all the world!"

Even louder cheering broke out. But in the midst of it all, Mickey hopped up as if just realizing he'd left the oven on. "We have the castle, but no one to rule it! What're we gonna do for a king?"

Goofy chuckled. "Gawrsh, Mickey, we thought it'd be obvious that _you'd_ be king."

The mouse's mouth fell open in surprise. _Him_? Rule the entire world? It didn't quite seem possible! "Aw, shucks Goofy, I don't think—"

"Don't be bashful, now!" Goofy said. "I think everyone can say you've earned it!"

Mickey was met with nods and sounds of agreement from all the surrounding townsfolk. How strange this was! That he'd gone from lowly deck hand, to sorcerer's apprentice, to king of his world through such dangerous and exciting means. He was nervous, yes; who wouldn't be? But this castle already did feel like home in some mysterious way. And if he was careful about what he did, and remembered the lessons he'd learned, maybe he'd even be a good king.

"Okay, I'll do it!" Mickey held up a finger before anyone else could open their mouths. "But on one condition."

"What's that?" Minnie asked.

Mickey smiled, and took her hand. "Minnie gets to be queen. And Goofy! You must be my captain of the knights!"

Goofy's face went red, and he laughed. "Ahyuck, it'd be an honor!"

"Hey, I helped, too!" Donald protested.

"Of course, Donald! That's why you gotta be the royal court magician," Mickey said.

"I get to be court magician?! Oh BOY!" the duck exclaimed, hopping in the air with excitement.

The crowd roared their approval, and Mickey found himself nearly overwhelmed with it all. It was like going swimming in a lake full of happy, scared, excited, thoughtful and prideful all mixed together. There were so many things he wanted to do now! But only one he wanted to do first.

"So, King Mickey," Minnie said, giggling a little at the title. "What will be your first act as king of this world?"

Mickey shot her his best grin. "Stand back, and I'll show ya!"

They did so. Mickey stepped forward, and drew the magic sword from his belt. He'd been thinking about and concentrating on doing this kind of magic for days, and now that he was ready, he felt like it was something he'd known how to do all along. It wasn't the usual kind of magic cast with spells, but the special kind that came from his friends, his stories and their hearts.

He tapped the sword to the ground, and as if someone had tipped a bucket of paint out from his sword point, color began to spread out along the grass. Not the gray-toned should-be color of their world, but _real_ colors, like those on Mickey and his gummi ship.

The color spread without stopping, like a giant wash brush being taken over the canvas of their world. The grass turned to rich green, the moat aquamarine, and the sky brilliant blue. The castle walls shown out with white against the sky, cobalt roofs and yellow and purple trimmings. The trees shook with a dozen different shades of green and brown, and the flower gardens exploded like fireworks into mazes of flowers.

But the color didn't stop there. It touched the people, too, and many began to cry out in surprise and even alarm. Mickey watched with an enormous smile as Minnie's dress turned to bright pink, Donald's sailor hat to navy blue, and Goofy's vest to orange. Pluto barked and began to run in circles as his fur turned an ochre color, and the chipmunks chattered at their new brown-furred looks. Everywhere was shouts and exclamations of amazement as this strange new phenomenon.

Mickey felt like his heart would burst out of his chest. Now _everyone _would see what it was like to discover a new world, because this world was as good as new!

His eyes found Minnie's stunned expression. "So do you like it?"

"Oh Mickey, I love it!" And she threw her arms around him for one of the best hugs-and-kisses he'd ever received.

"Ha-ha! It looks like this castle is ready to go!" Mickey cheered.

"Wait, I think we're forgetting somethin'!" Goofy piped up. "We gotta name the castle, don't we?"

"That's right! It's not a proper castle without a name," Minnie agreed.

This was the one thing Mickey hadn't thought of. While Donald was insisting they call it the "Grand Duck Castle," he pondered over the name. Something in him said he should name it for the world he visited and the people he met, since it was the sorcerer who made all this possible. But "Yen Sid Castle" just sounded weird. Maybe, if he switched the name around a bit...

"Disney Castle!" He found himself almost shouting.

"Hmmm..." Goofy considered the name. "I guess it kinda has a nice ring to it."

"I think it's grand!" Minnie finally said.

"Well, if you're the king..." Donald sighed, although he clearly would've preferred "Grand Duck Castle."

"Ha-ha! Well, I'm sure glad you all like it!"

Minnie leaned over and gave him another kiss on the cheek, which made him feel as if someone had filled all his insides with warm, tingly goo. He couldn't have possibly imagined a better homecoming than Minnie taking his hand and saying, "Welcome home, Your Majesty."

------

And so it was that, through circumstances mysterious, obvious and just plain lucky, Mickey Mouse became the king of Disney Castle, and brought color to his small and slightly scratchy world. Because of this, the world was now bigger, and brighter, shining with the light it'd had tucked away in there all along.

Most stories would end with a "happily ever after," but that was obviously not the case with this one. Ruling the world would not come any easier than becoming king had, and times would continue to grow more dangerous as the darkness stretched from world to world. The King would go on many more journeys to worlds never before imagined, and cross paths with people both full of light and great darkness.

But those are all stories for another time. So while there was no "ever after" involved, it can certainly be said that this one ended happily.

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THE END

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Holy cow, it's the end of this story! Longest chapter-wise story I think I've actually finished for KH! XD I'm usually very very bad about replying to reviews, but I just wanted to give a hugemongous thank-you to everyone that reviews, favorited or just enjoyed reading! I've never gotten 100 reviews before; I am amazed! All of your comments really meant a lot to me.

Will there be a sequel? I really don't know yet. For something like this, there's the possibility (whereas Eleventh Hour wouldn't be good for sequels at all) but I'm afraid I don't really have any solid story ideas like I did for this. So who knows! At the moment, no. Either way, I'm glad this one is complete!


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